Zero to Hero
by Lancer2147
Summary: Ash's journey starts in Vermilion City, under the guidance of the infamous Lt. Surge. In a world where money usually means power, he follows his own path, refusing to give up on his dream of being a Elite Pokémon Trainer. I really suck at summaries, please read the first two chapters. AshxMayxSerenaxDawn THE REWRITE IS OUT, check my profile.
1. Zero

Before I get this story started I'd like to introduce myself, my username is Lancer2147, bu you can just call me Lance. A little more than a month ago, inspired by the high quality works from this site, I've decided to write my own fanfics, as a personal challenges of sorts. My first fic, set at the Naruto universe is still ongoing, having more than 70 K words and almost 700 followers. The surprising success of this work made me ponder about expanding to write about some other areas of interest. About a week ago, while I faced a writer's block at the before mentioned fic I've came upon some great Pokémon stories, that further motivated me to write my own story: Zero to Hero.

This fanfiction was heavily inspired by some of the common betrayal theme stories that are present on the site, although it's not a betrayal story as it diverges from canon even before Ash was born. The convergence point is Delia's death, leaving Ash alone, poor and all by himself, struggling to become a Pokémon Master.

Pokémon was a important part of my childhood as I watched the anime and played most of the games. I'm not a native English writer (therefore I apologize for any serious grammatical and concordance errors that most likely will be present at this story) and by playing Pokémon Ruby, and Pokémon Pearl I became a self taught English reader. So it's nice to finally write about something that marked my childhood. For the fans and followers of my Naruto story: don't worry, I'm not giving up or putting the project aside, I just felt that a slightly larger break would be beneficial to the story.

Now for some of the concepts of this story:

This will be heavy AU, and I plan to converge the animeverse with the gameverse, meddling the storylines and some characters as well. I've also decided to make a paralel between Pokémon battling and sports like soccer, basketball and football, as I felt it was something innovative. This chapter is a bit of a introduction and I hope to have clarified most of the incoming questions in the chapter, although I'd love to read and personally answer the readers questions at the upcoming chapter. So feel free to ask anything really, a review is always nice as it shows that my work is appreciated.

There will be romance and pairings, in the plural, it will be a harem story, a common occurrence at Naruto fanfics but not as likely at the Pokémon universe although it won't be classified as so. I'll do my best to have Ash developing his relationships with the girls personally as I plan to following the anime to a certain extent. So far the only certain pairing is AshxMayxSerena, with a 95% chance of Dawn being added too.

So without any further ado, let's get it started.

* * *

Vermilion City – Graveyard

The cemetery is a place of memories, usually painful ones, related to the sadness and grief of saying farewell to one of your loved ones. A youngster; no older than ten, with raven black hair partially covered by a worn out and discolored black woolen cap, wearing a plain black long-sleeved shirt, navy blue plain trousers and finally some worn out white shoes with red details, was kneeling to the grassy field that hosted many tombstones. The boy, devoid of any expression, stared intently to one particular tombstone.

 _Delia Ketchum, friend and mother, aged 34_

After few more minutes, the boy's facial features started to change. The once lifeless brown eyes shined bright red for a second before locking at the horizon, staring at a far distant goal that he intended to chase. His eyebrows regained his contours. And finally his mouth, still in a neutral position, made a half smile, half grin. He then untucked a necklace, previously hidden by his long-sleeved shirt. The necklace consisted of a light silver chain and a four pointed, light blue star shaped pendant. Two small green orbs were place into opposite directions of the star core, one being placed near the junction of the pendant with the necklace whilst another stood in the opposite direction, from where a darker blue knot emerged.

" _Mom, I'm not going to disappoint you."_

The youngster made a promise, and got up, heading for the exit, without staring back at the tombstone, as if he tried to leave the past in the past.

* * *

Vermilion City – Possum Hole

The infamous Possum Hole neighborhood of Vermilion City was well known for the long list of appearances at the Vermilion City News, mainly at the crime segment, yet, since three years ago this was the place Ash Ketchum called home.

The youngster made his way through the shallow alleys with tremendous familiarity. He glanced around at a group of five men, all of them wearing red, either as shirts, bandanas or caps, in front of a liquor store. The leader of the group was a rather tall man; standing at about 5'9" feet (181 centimeters), he has fair skin and wears an all red outfit, crimson red jeans, a red sleeveless shirt, exposing his ripped frame and finally a red bandana around his bald hair. He also smokes a cigarette, containing illicit substances and if you looked at his waist level you can see a handgun tucked between his belt and the jeans. The man, known as T-Bone by his fellow gang members was the leader of the Vermilion City Possum Reds, a Gang that was usually involved in drug dealership activities. The man looked down at the youngster that stood at 5'1" feet (155 centimeters).

"Yo Young Smoke, how you doing?"

"Fine…" Ash said dismissively "Also I still don't get why you call me Young Smoke… I don't smoke anyway…"

"Well, where there's smoke there's ash. I mean who names his kid after burnt remains?" T-Bone said, causing the remaining gang members to bark in laughter. Ash stood a bit down headed.

"Now, let's cut this bullshit." T-Bone said "How you dealing with your mother's…" he said, before being interrupted by Ash

"Fine, thanks for asking." Ash said, still keeping his dismissive tone.

"Hey, if you need help, look out for me. The Possum Reds are always looking for new blood. It's not the most glorious lifestyle, but in here you'll always have a family."

Ash looked uncertain, before he once again remembered his late mother.

" _Mother wished so much for my future, I won't disappoint her by becoming a run-of-the-mill thug."_

He then smiled. "I'm sorry T-Bone, but I still want to try some things before I make my decision."

The gangster just sighed. "It's your loss then."

After walking for some more minutes Ash reached his final destination.

A five pavements building, where his apartment stood. The building was a rather plain one. He went up the stairway as he finally entered his apartment.

The apartment was a hidebound one, a small kitchen that only had room for the oven, the fridge and a small kitchen cabinet. The room was so small that Ash usually had to eat in the living room as there was no place to a table.

If the kitchen was small, the bathroom was minuscule only leaving an inch of room around to move between the shower, toilet and the sink.

The bedroom was comfy at least, a single bed, a bedside table and a small television atop the dresser. It belonged to his mother, now that she's gone he would sleep in here.

Finally the living room was the biggest room in the apartment, not that it meant a lot considering the other parts. A bookshelf filled with some old books, a coffee table, that Ash and Delia usually improvised as a dinner table and Ash's most faithful companion, the couch, where he slept when his mother was still alive. He looked to the couch.

" _I wish I still had to sleep here."_ He thought, obviously thinking about his mother.

He then looked at the door and realized that he didn't paid attention to the two letters that were thrown under it.

He picked both, and sat at the couch opening the first one, it was from his landlady.

 _Ash Ketchum,_

 _My condolences for your loss. Delia was a great woman and I honestly hope she finds peace wherever she is right now. The reason I'm writing this letter is to inform you of the rent. Delia paid for three months in advance just a week ago, so you won't have to worry about if for some time. That being said I'd like to know if you intend to continue living under this roof. I won't change the price of the rent, so I recommend you to start looking for a job if you wish to keep living here._

Ash quickly wrote a letter to the landlady, stating his desire to continue living at the building and proposing a meeting where they could discuss the matter furtherly.

He then opened the second letter, it was from the Youth and Adolescence Association.

 _Ash Ketchum,_

 _The Youth and Adolescence Association sends his most profound condolences for your loss. We write this letter to inform you that due to having no living relatives you're entitled to receive emancipation. To do so you'll have to convince the social worker that's scheduled to visit you in a month that you're able to feed yourself, pay your bills whilst maintaining a regular attendance rate at the school._

 _Good Luck._

The raven haired boy just sighed, it seems like he had work to do: finding a job.

* * *

Vermilion City – Harbor

Ash was half-heartedly walking towards the Harbor. Soon in the morning he went out, trying to get a job at several kinds of stores that could conciliate the work and study time. So far he has been unsuccessful. He decided to check on the Vermilion Harbor as he heard that they were recruiting.

He was welcomed by the manager, a man on his early fifties, with balding grey hair and small rimmed glasses.

"I assume you're looking for a job." He said, eyeing the youngster

"Yes."

"What are your qualifications?"

"I have none, sir." Ash replied

The man once again eyed Ash.

"Well, I may be able to find something for you, at the docks section of course. After the PPA (Pokémon Protection Agency) prevented us from using Machoke at the Harbor because we didn't met their stupid regulations we're always looking for able bodied men." He said angrily, before clenching his fists and calming a bit "You'll have to help with the discharge of crates and run some errands around the town. We pay the usual rate for hours, I gather you'll be working half shift."

"Yes."

"Okay." He said, looking at a pile of papers.

"This will work." He said, still eyeing the papers.

"This is a contract of employment at the docks. You'll work for the Vermilion Harbor Company for the basic fee of 6,5 Pokémon Dollars/ hour for six hours during workdays and ten hours during the weekends. Is that okay?"

"More than okay." Ash said, grinning before shaking the manager hand.

* * *

Vermilion City – Vermilion City Pokémon Gym

After his meeting at the Harbor, Ash went directly to the city's Pokémon Gym. His future could start here. He remembered promising his mother that he would become a great Pokémon Trainer. Not only it was his dream but was something that could send him away from the Possum Hole and send him in a journey through the Kanto Region.

Being an Elite Pokémon Trainer was rewarding financially and gave people a great deal of respect. To the Japanese people in Kanto, Johto, Hoenn and Sinnoh, being a Pokémon Trainer was the same as being a famous soccer player in Europe or South America or a NBA/NFL player in the USA. Recently the Pokémon League made efforts to expand the Pokémon Battling Brand to USA, establishing a league in the Unova region, and to Europe, where another league was established in the French region of Kalos.

Besides the leagues some places around the world like Alola and Orre, both States in the United States, developed interest in Pokémon interaction. Also Fiore, in Italy and Guyana , a country in South America were famed for having some legendary Pokémon living in its territory.

About ten years ago, a Pokémon Slavery scandal came out to the public and shocked everyone. Pokémon were being used as a cheap replacement for human workforce. Several prominent Japanese multinationals were amongst the companies that used this kind of work. The other international governments, like the U.S. and Russia were outraged as their companies were prejudiced by the unfair competition put by Japanese companies that used this method.

Pokémon species are spread around the world, but in an unbalanced manner. Recent studies appointed Japan housing about 85 % of the entire Pokémon population in the world, with the U.S. coming second with only 5%. The remaining 10% was the rest of the world Pokémon population, with countries like France, Italy, Brazil and Guyana having the most noticeable percentage amongst those, even though they, when accounted alone couldn't get past 1%.

After several reunions amongst the world power governments it was decided that Pokémon should be preserved and prevented from working in those companies, with Japan giving reassurances that his companies only used human labor.

To properly supervise the use of the Pokémon, the PPA (Pokémon Protection Agency), a NGO, based in Saffron was created. After another round of meetings it was decided that Pokémon competitions, like Pokémon battling and Pokémon contest would be allowed, but only under some extremely strict rules.

The problem came when the Pokémon League realized that they couldn't properly watch over a increased number of trainers, so they decided to "elitize" the access to Pokémon.

A Trainer License that allowed a person to properly own, and compete with Pokémon was currently priced at 100,000 Pokémon Dollars, roughly three years of Ash's income. Besides that, the person interested in obtaining such a license would also be required to pass a test about Pokémon Habits

However it was possible to get a discount of sorts as long as you got a recommendation letter from a Gym Leader, Elite Four or a Pokémon Professor. Usually the max discount you could get is a 50% rate, so instead of paying 100,000 Pokémon Dollars, the recommended trainer would "only" pay 50,000 Pokémon Dollars.

Pokémon Storage and PokéBalls were overpriced too. To use the storage system you would need to pay an extra 100,000 Pokémon Dollars fee to the league, besides paying for land and the machinery to properly transfer Pokémon. The cheapest Pokéball is tagged at 2,000 Pokémon Dollars, and could only be sold to certified trainers, that possessed the Pokémon Trainer/Coordinator License.

In another measure to prevent Pokémon abuse, the PPA established that trainers should only be allowed to leave in a journey after reaching a certain age. Ash lucked out in this department as Kanto, alongside Johto had the lowest age requirement, being 12. Hoenn and Unova allowed trainers to leave after they were 13. Sinnoh's age requirement was 14. Finally, Kalos only allowed trainers to leave in a journey after they were 16.

So, Ash was planning to get everything set to go on a journey as soon as he reached twelve, which meant that he needed to amass a huge amount of money for the license and hopefully find a breeder to sell him a Pokémon Egg for a reduced price. He also intended to hone his skills as a Pokémon trainer even before he got himself a Pokémon, so he decided to study some old databooks that he found at his school library. But why he was standing in front of the Vermilion City Gym? Well, Ash planned to…

The raven haired boy's musings were stopped a teen, around fifteen years, stormed out of the Gym, knocking Ash to the ground with the door, in the process.

Ash stood a bit confused for a few seconds, still sitting in the ground, until a figure blocked the sun, offering him a hand. Ash reluctantly accepted the help to get up. Finally having the chance to look at who offered him the help, Ash gasped as he saw the towering presence of Vermilion's most famous inhabitant: Lt. Surge, the Flying American.

Standing at an astonishing height of 7'4" (224 centimeters), Surge looked more like a basketball player than a Pokémon trainer. He has a spiky, short blond hair, and blue, piercing eyes. He wears a sort of military outfit, although he opts to leave his shirt open, showing his extremely ripped physic, that made him one of Vermilion's most well sought bachelors.

Surge gazed at Ash.

"You fine, brat?"

"Yyeah, thanks."

"Okay, now get out of the way, I need to close the gym." He said firmly

Seeing a good chance to impress the leader and hopefully acquire the chance for a apprenticeship at one of the region strongest gyms, Ash offered to help. The Lieutenant just raised an eyebrow, before accepting the help.

The help Ash provided basically consisted on pressing on and off security switches, allowing Surge to properly check on areas of the gym without being electrified. The raven haired boy kept glancing around, trying to find a good subject to engage in conversation with Surge in order to find an opening to ask for a internship. The chance never came, and he was heading to the exit he felt the doors locking, as he turned to question the gym leader, he felt a heavy hit at his head and collapsed.

* * *

Unknown Location

Ash woke up, with a heavy headache. He opened his eyes, only to see nothing, pitch black darkness. He tried to get up, but found his arms and legs tied, being unable to move.

"Ash Ketchum… age 10, son of Delia Ketchum and an unnamed father, born in Pallet Town where he lived until he moved to Vermilion, alongside his mother, three years ago. Delia Ketchum is dead now and nothing ties you to this city anymore, so you decided to steal the city gym…" came the accusatory voice that Ash recognized belonging to Lt. Surge.

Ash tried to reply but found his mouth gagged.

"..but not in my city. My Gym my rules, so give me a reason for not kill you right now." Surge said angrily, before removing Ash's gag.

"Everything you said about me is true, I'm ten years old, son of Delia Ketchum and an unnamed father, born in Pallet Town until I moved to Vermilion when I was seven… My mother is dead too… but I never intended to steal anything." He defended himself

"You dare to lie to me?"

"I'm not a liar." Ash yelled angrily

Surge then removed the blindfold in Ash's eyes, allowing the youngster to see once again. Without taking his eyes from Surge, he quickly looked around, he was in a sort of interrogation room, why Surge had one of those in a Pokémon Gym he didn't knew.

"So you decided to kindly help me without asking for anything in return?" the American asked ironically

"What's the problem with that?" Ash asked

"Nobody does anything for free, lest anybody from your area." Surge replied

"Okay…" Ash said downheartedly "… I wanted to help so I could get an apprenticeship here, I'm from the Possum Hole, but I'm not a thief, I'd never steal your Pokémon."

"Apprenticeship? Don't make me laugh. I doubt you have a Pokémon Trainer License."

"I don't. But I plan to, so I wished to prepare ahead."

Surge then locked eye contact with Ash.

"I will tell you a story, Ash Ketchum. I was born in Unova, an important state of the USA. I had this guy who was my best friend, Kent Chancellor, we did everything together, study, party, we even got to a threesome together." Surge said shocking Ash by the sexual connotation.

"I fucked her mouth while Kent got her pussy." He continued, before realizing Ash's shocked expression.

"But that's off topic, I got carried away. Anyway, Kent and I decided to join the Air Force. Boot camp was hell, but we managed to pass. Then came the damned Gulf War, and they sent us two unexperienced pilots to fight. Those damn Iraqi shot our planes gas tank. I was lucky to have an electric Pokémon by my side, as I used its electricity to power my plane. Kent didn't had the same luck."

"I'm sorry for your loss." Ash said honestly

"It was the government fault. They sent two unproven boys to war, to their graves. If they had your mentality to be prepared before something really occurred, Kent would still be alive. I don't compliment people very often, but I admire your willingness."

"So this means you'll accept me as your apprentice?" Ash asked hopefully.

Surge just grinned , before standing behind Ash's figure, that was still tied to a chair.

"Not yet." He said before hitting the boy's head once again, sending him to unconsciousness.

* * *

Unknown Location

When Ash woke up once again, still blindfolded, gagged and tied. He felt like he was in movement somehow, quickly coming to the conclusion that he was being transported in a vehicle of sorts. His pained groans didn't go unnoticed by the Lieutenant, who proceeded to give a speech.

"You know, when I joined the army we had a rite of passage of sorts. Before we were even allowed to join the battalion and train at the barracks we were dumped at a hazardous location, in order to prove we had the wish to survive. I was left at the Valley of the Death, in the Mojave Desert. It was awful, dehydration, heat, cold, poisoning or being eaten to death by coyotes and pumas were all viable options. My commander dumped me there with a canteen of water and a pistol, loaded with a single bullet. Even thirty years after this, I still keep that bullet, the day I became a man wasn't when I first had sex, or I had to kill in war, no, the day I became a man was the day I managed to survive at the desert."

"So I'll tell you right now. Your fate is horrible, honestly I can't help but see you joining one of the gangs at the Possum Hole and ending up selling drugs, still I'm willing to give you a chance to change this. I've lost a thing here, I won't tell you exactly what the thing is, but you need to recover it. If you do so, I'll accept you as my apprentice."

After several minutes, the vehicle stopped. Surge then threw Ash on the ground and put a knife on his still tied hand.

"I'm making things easy on you. I'm giving you a knife, a canteen of water and a Pokéball, more than what you could've hopped for."

"Don't die." He said before once again starting the vehicle's engine, leaving Ash alone.

As soon as Surge left, the raven haired youngster tried to use the knife to cut the rope that was restraining his hands. After about thirty minutes he finally got loose, and quickly managed to free his legs and remove his blindfold.

Glancing around he noted that he was in a forest, although he couldn't know exactly the exact time, as the dense trees didn't allowed the sun to enter the area. He then eagerly took the Pokéball Surge gave him.

" _Let's see what he gave me._ "

"I choose you." Ash said, eagerly, barely containing his excitement. Only to see the bright figure of… nothing.

He stared blankly at the scene for a few seconds before yelling loudly.

"Who gives a kid a Pokéball without any Pokémon in it? It's like giving someone a gun without any bullets." Ash complained

After some more moments he sighed. He was all alone in that one.

Carefully walking into the forest, being extra careful to not trip on any tree branches or angry the inhabiting Pokémon, Ash wandered around for some hours. He cursed his luck until came upon a tree, stuffed with several, round, small and blue berries.

" _Oran Berries."_ He thought

The greater part of the fruits were placed on higher branches, being unreachable for Ash's small body, but he managed to climb into some lower branches and picking up some of the fruits that felt to the ground too, amassing the amount of fourteen berries.

" _At least I have something to eat for a few days, now I just need to find water."_

He munched one of the berries before setting out to explore the forest once again. He continued to look around until he saw a sign.

" _V…idi..…F….r….st"_ Ash narrowed his eyes, trying to decipher the rest of the sign, but was unsuccessful as the letter were totally faded.

He shrugged before resuming his journey once again.

Twenty minutes later, he found a river that flowed crystalline water, he the refilled his canteen and looked around, noticing a rocky structure, that resembled a cave of sorts. The entrance was awfully narrow and he had a hard time to crawl into the structure. He noticed that this was a very naturally protected structure.

After some pondering he decided to set camp at the rock as he felt protected and was near to a body of water, allowing him to be at the best of his game when he woke up, as he needed to be to find Surge's missing item.

As he lay down he noticed a nest of sorts, and to his surprise an egg. He quickly got close to the nest, touching the egg, feeling its warmth. The egg was a complete golden yellow, with exception of its lower part, which was a fractured black segment. The egg was warm but there was no sign of any activity at the area, his parents probably being attacked, caught or just decided to abandon the egg.

He decided to sleep, leaving the decision regarding the egg to tomorrow. As he drifted off to sleep he subconsciously started to get closer and closer to the egg .

After some hours an out looker would see Ash peacefully sleeping, whilst hugging the egg.

* * *

Ash woke up with a sensation of warmth, heat. As he regained consciousness he found himself hugging the egg, which was glowing white. Much to Ash's surprise, the egg hatched, giving place to a small rodent like creature, with golden fur, pink checks and black neck, ears and tails. The creature eyes were black with white irises.

The rodent looked at Ash, tilting his head to the side.

"Pichu?"

* * *

First chapter is done, and I plan on releasing the second one soon, please review and tell me what you thought of the story so far.

 **IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE 04/06/2019: This story is being rewritten, to get rid of the grammatical errors, fix some plot holes and change somethings as reader's recommendations, the first chapters of the new story are already published, this won't be updated any further, so it will continue at "Zero to Hero - Reloaded" whose link is in my profile.**


	2. They'll know my name

Chapter 2 is here, check the end of chapter for Author's notes

* * *

Ash looked dumbfounded at the small rodent, whose head was still tilted to his side. Recalling some of the lessons he had at Professor Oak's Summer Camp, when he was still living in Pallet, he attentively looked at the rodent.

" _It looks a bit like Pikachu, but I recall him being bigger… wait… if I remember correctly Pikachu could evolve from another Pokémon too… so… oh I remember now, it's Pichu, a baby Pokémon."_

He then knelt to the ground, trying to not look threatening to the newborn.

"Hi, Pichu, my name is Ash Ketchum."

The newly identified Pokémon then stood still for a few seconds before jumping at Ash's arms, hugging him.

Ash wasn't used to physical contact ever since his mother died, so having someone, even if not human, hugging him felt surprisingly good and he couldn't help but return the hug to the small baby Pokémon. After some minutes Ash once again knelt to the ground.

"I'm going to look around for food and to see if I find Surge's missing item, although I don't have any idea of what it is. Stay here ok?"

The golden colored Pokémon nodded, looking at Ash's eyes.

As he made his way towards the entrance of the cavern, he heard almost unperceptive footsteps, he quickly turned around to see Pichu following him. He quickly scooped up the baby in his arms, placing him once again near the nest.

"I'll go, you stay, okay?"

The Pokémon once again nodded.

Once again hearing footsteps, Ash sighed, turning around and unsurprising facing Pichu, who had a bit of smug expression at his face.

"You don't have the slightest idea of what I'm talking about, right?" he asked, getting a nod from the pokémon. The raven haired youngster then sighed once again.

"I guess you'll be following me then?"

The baby Pokémon shrugged before nodding, causing Ash to smile

"Let's go then."

* * *

The duo walked through the forest, the sun shined bright and since they came to tree-less clearing they could see that it was already morning, as he glanced around, he noticed that the shades of the rocks and the few trees were very shorter, so he presumed that it was around midday. He looked around to see Pichu, following him although he was falling behind.

Ash then took an Oran Berry and the canteen of water, and offered them to Pichu, who happily accepted. As the Pokémon finished eating and drinking, Ash glanced at the canteen.

" _It's almost empty, it's better if I start looking for water to refill it, dehydration can be a trouble."_

He then looked at Pichu, who was sitting on the ground, with a tired expression.

" _He's still a newborn, no wonder why he's so tired."_

He then scooped Pichu in his arms, before putting him above his head.

"Pichu you're tired, so please rest above my head."

Pichu squealed, happy with the view and the rest place Ash provided.

After some more minutes, Ash finally stopped in his tracks, hearing the sound of running water.

After following the sound for some minutes, Ash finally reached the river, which flowed with crystal clear water, giving the area an air of calmness.

He quickly refilled his canteen and looked around once again, regretting that he didn't have a clock to keep track of time. He, in a wild guess, would say that it was about 3 P.M. but he wasn't sure.

" _I don't want to get lost in a forest full of wild pokémon at night, I need to find a shelter, and then use the remaining time to start searching through the forest for Surge's item."_

He glanced around, this time he wasn't lucky to be near a cave of sorts, so he decided to walk a little so he could find a better place to settle in. He kept walking sidewards the river, going in the opposite direction of the water flow, as the sun started to fade through the horizon, creating shades from the trees, the weather became quite pleasant, in fact so pleasant that Pichu decided to use Ash's head as a mattress for a nap.

After some minutes a tree formation caught the attention of the youngster from Vermilion. Tall, robust trees grew almost glued to each other, in a peculiar spherical formation, which would cover the area equivalent of a small room. The closeness of the trees would make a natural room of sorts, a perfect place for Ash and Pichu to sleep in, however they were so close that it was impossible to get in. However a particular pair of trees seemed to be a bit more separated than the rest. Ash frowned.

" _Now I regret eating that much, things would be much easier if I was thinner."_

Ash was by no means fat, but he wasn't a broomstick either. Compared to another ten years old boys, Ash would be considered slight broader than the normal. However if you just regard his eating habits you would be impressed by his sheer appetite. The raven haired boy had an appetite that would rival a Snorlax, but still managed to stay fit.

He then took the sleeping Pichu, and put the Pokémon into the makeshift room with ease. Then using some contortionism he managed to squeeze his way through the room too.

He glanced at the sleeping form of the pokémon, babies had a really heavy sleep.

" _It's still a bit early to go sleep, since I still don't have the slightest about how Surge's item looks like I guess I'll scout the area around for a bit."_

He was about to leave when he noticed something on the ground, a candy of sorts, enveloped in a blue cover.

" _Maybe this is Surge's item? No… he doesn't look like someone who likes sweets. I think I'll give this to Pichu, babies usually like candies."_ He mused before pocketing the candy and leaving to do some scouting.

* * *

"Pichu." the rodent said, using his small paws to poke the sleeping form of Ash Ketchum.

The trainer just shifted around, without waking up.

The pokémon didn't gave up and once again poked the trainer's face, who grumbled a inaudible answer and once again shifted his sleeping position.

After some more minutes without success, Pichu had enough, jumped above Ash and released his most powerful Thundershock attack, effectively waking the youngster.

"AHHHH…WHAT THE HELL?" the boy yelled in surprise as he got up.

He glanced around to see the grinning face of Pichu.

"What was that for?" he demanded

Pichu pointed towards the entry of the grotto, more specifically the sun light that slowly entered the room.

Ash understood the message that the Pokémon was trying to give: he overslept.

"Guess I overslept for bit." He said rubbing the back of his neck, before turning to the rodent. "Great attack by the way." He complimented, causing the pokémon to puff his chest.

Ash then remembered the candy he found yesterday. Taking it out of a pocket in his pant he called the pokémon.

"Pichu?" the creature asked, tilting his head to side, curiously.

"Have this." Ash said, extending the hand with the unwrapped candy, which had a vibrant pink color. "Consider a thank you gift for sticking with me."

As the Pokémon reached for the candy and started to voraciously devour it with a happy expression Ash chuckled, before opting to once again speak again, with a melancholic tone.

"My mother died a month ago… and I thought I was alone. I expected that people would take pity on me… help me. But I discovered that the world waits for nobody, if we don't pick up the pace we're going to be left behind without any second thoughts. So I vowed to live for myself, no more self-pitying, no more weaknesses, I must move forward, only forward."

By this time Pichu had already finished the candy and looked at Ash with an attentive expression.

The boy from Vermilion had no idea if Pichu could understand what he said, he suspected that it didn't understand the words, not all of them at least. But it didn't mattered, he felt like he needed to vent this to someone who cared, and Pichu really cared.

"I'm just 10 years old, and so much shit happened to me already. People at my age should be at school and playing with toys, not braving a forest to have a shot at following his dreams. Yet I'm thankful, I don't know if I will find Surge's item, nor if I will even leave this forest alive. But what matters most is that I entered here as a kid, I'll leave as a man."

The raven haired boy then took the Pokéball that Surge gave him from his pocket, eyeing it intently.

"I always expected to be alone, and I already accepted that as my fate. But then you appeared. You'll always be my first friend. Two years from now. I plan on starting a journey to achieve my dream: become a Pokémon Master."

He then nodded to himself and extended the Pokéball to Pichu.

"I'd be honored if you joined me. I live in Vermilion, it's not pretty, and it's not glamorous. The only thing I can promise you is that we'll stand everything together. It's your decision to make and regardless of it you'll still be my friend. So, Pichu, you want to join me?" Ash asked, extending the Pokéball in his right hand to the pokémon.

Pichu had a determined gaze when he lifted his small paw to touch the center of the Pokéball, being sucked in.

The ball shook three times is Ash's hand, before it stopped, marking the capture. He planned to call Pichu back, but suddenly the Pokéball opened, revealing Pichu.

"What's the matter Pichu?" Ash asked worriedly.

The rodent pointed at the Pokéball then made a disgusted face, crossing his arms in a X.

"I see. You don't like the inside of the Pokéball right?" he asked, getting a nod from the pokémon.

"It's ok. I won't oblige you to stay in it unless it's really necessary." Ash said, before bowing his head. "Hop in."

* * *

The duo navigated through the forest with some ease, considering they had acquired experience since they first came there. Ash was amazed by how much he could learn in just two days. In a smart move he decided to scout the area bordering the river first as he would have a relative ease in finding his way back to the grotto.

Using shadows as a way to predict the time, whilst not always completely reliable because the sun could be overshadowed by clouds, was proving to be Ash's most reliable skill. The logic behind it was simple. At midday the sun would be directly above the area, therefore casting no shadow. So by measuring the length of the before mentioned shadows he would have a notion of how closer he was to midday as the shadows shrink and by sunset as the shadows prolonged once again.

Glancing around Ash guessed that it was around 2-3 PM, the sun usually sets at 7, so he still had a lot of exploring to do today. After wandering for a few more minute, the duo came to a halt as they reached a more enclosed part of the forest, the sun hardly came through the numerous trees. Ash then noticed a piece of broken wood in the grass. It was covered by green moss, probably had been there for a long time. He then glanced around at a broken pole that stood a few feet away from where he found the wood.

The piece had a two edged arrow form. The raven haired trainer wannabe quickly concluded that this was a sign of sorts. He quickly used his hands to clean the moss, finally revealing the contents of the sign.

 _VIRIDIAN CITY -_ _VIRIDIAN FOREST_ _\- PEWTER CITY_

He then looked at his companion.

"It looks like we're at the Viridian Forest." Ash said while he inwardly scowled, the way from Viridian, or Pewter to Vermilion was long.

He then carefully restored the sign to the pole, using some fallen vines to tie it properly. As he appreciated his handwork he felt a urge to leave his mark, he went to the backward part of the sign and used the knife Surge gave him to carve a message for the eternity.

 _ASH KETCHUM, FUTURE POKÉMON MASTER AND HIS BEST FRIEND PICHU_

 _THEY'LL KNOW OUR NAMES_

 _VIRIDIAN FOREST_

 _2012/06/21_

"What do you think Pichu?" Ash asked, getting an approving nod from the rodent.

" _They will know our names… a good phrase indeed."_ He mused silently

The youngster attention then turned back into a very large tree, standing at approximately 60 feet's (about twenty meters), towering above the other plants, however what really caught Ash's attention was the greenish stone with a yellow thunderbolt pattern at it center.

" _A Thunderstone: Surge's lost item."_

He then frowned, the Stone was resting at the intersection of the trunk and one of the lowermost stems of the tree. Ash could guess it would take at least four copies of himself, standing one atop of the other, to be able to properly reach the stone, so he guessed that the stem stood around twenty feet (about 6 meters) away from the ground. There was no way he could climb that higher, so he decided that making the stone fall was his best chance of retrieving it. He then saw pebbles, not overly large, nor heavy, but still big enough to hit the stone and heavy enough to cause the stem to shake should it was hit. He wasted no time in throwing the pebbles. He even allowed Pichu to throw it too, the Pokémon could only throw extremely small pebbles and without any hint of precision, but if it made the pokémon feel like contributing, Ash had no objections.

After an hour the duo was still throwing pebbles, Ash managed to hit the stem twice, causing it to shake, but not enough to cause the stone to fall. The boy then took a slightly larger pebble, taking a deep breath before launching it upwards, hoping to hit the Thunderstone. The pebble rose with considerable force.

5 feet.

10 feet.

15 feet.

20 feet.

" _Now or never."_ Ash though, as he saw the pebble lose a bit of the momentum. Then it finally reached the required height, but missing the target by a few inches.

The pebble continued to arise, before finally coming into contact with the foliage at the edge of an upper branch.

Ash sighed, turning to grab another pebble before he heard a screech. A few seconds later a small bird-like pokémon with brown feather landed next to him. He spotted a very angry look, Ash then noticed the callus at the small avian Pokémon head. He gulped before looking at the pokémon eyes.

"I'm terribly sorry about that."

His apologies felt on deaf ears as the bird screeched, flying towards him.

Pichu glanced at the scene amusedly, seeing Ash run from an enraged Spearow was amusing, he wasn't going to let his trainer get hurt, but he could at least enjoy the sight a little. After some more moments the rodent decided to step in. Charging his cheek pouches with electrical energy, he released a Thundershock at the Spearow.

The avian Pokémon immediately glanced at the rodent, and grunted before leaving once again, with an outraged expression.

"That was a close on, thank you Pichu." Ash said before resuming his previous task.

A few minutes later a loud screech interrupted the duo once again. They looked above at the sight of four Spearows, one of which the one whose head was hit the pebble as he still had the callus and the angry expression. However at the center of the group of Spearows stood an large avian pokémon, that vaguely resembled a woodpecker, it had full brown plumes and a large beak that whose color was a tone in between pink and red. Despite not knowing much about pokémon species Ash quickly recognized the larger bird as a Fearow, Spearow's evolution.

"Crap… I assume talking won't get us out of this now. Pichu, please fight by my side." Ash asked getting an approving nod of the rodent.

The Spearows attacked in an unorganized fashion, whilst Fearow stood behind, glancing at Pichu with a threatening gaze.

"Pichu, don't let them run circles around you, use Thundershock to disperse them." Ash commanded

"Piiichuuuu!" the rodent yelled, releasing a electric current, that made the opposing pokémon stop their assault.

"Great work! We need to take down those Spearows one by one. Feint left and fire a Thundershock at the rightmost one."

Pichu dashed forward, before making the feint, aligning himself diagonally with the birds. The rosy cheeks started to charge electricity, as he fired a fully-fledged Thundershock.

The first three Spearow dodged the attack by taking flight, but the final one, surprised by the range of the attack couldn't move quickly enough, being hit by the attack, and fainting instantly.

"Amazing Pichu, now let's divert, get in close and hit two at the same time."

The yellow pokémon did as asked, taking use of the Spearows blind fury to sneak upon their guard and unleash a diverted Thundershock, which knocked out two other Spearows, only leaving the calloused one left.

"Just one more. Wait until it gets closer, then jump above and Thundershock once again."

Steeling his gaze the electric type waited until Spearow was a few feet away, then he leapt above, unleashing a Thundershock targeting the bird under him. The attack knocked the remaining Spearow, but much Ash and Pichu's surprise, Fearow decided to join the fight, charging at Pichu, who still was in airborne.

"Shit. Use Thundershock to repel him."

However Pichu couldn't recharge fast enough, instead being hit by Fearow's Wing Attack and thrown backwards.

"PICHU!" Ash yelled in concern for his friend.

Pichu managed to get up, but was bruised and tired by the large usage of attacks.

"Pichu you can't fight like that. Leave, I'll act as a decoy." Ash said determinedly

The youngster glanced at the Fearow, apparently hitting Pichu physically wasn't his best idea. The contact triggered Pichu's ability : Static, paralyzing Fearow. But even in diminutive speed the large bird was still a threatening presence. He slowly charged towards Pichu, but stopped dead in his tracks as Ash appeared opening his arms.

"You won't get Pichu." He then turned to the small rodent "Go to the grotto, this oversized woodpecker won't have a shit on me."

Pichu, despite his injured state couldn't help but snicker at Ash's remark and Fearow's indignant face. But still he knew Ash could get badly hurt, he wanted to protect his trainer, he wanted to protect his friend. Then he felt it, slowly building from the inside: power.

He then let it take over, glowing with golden colored electricity. He channeled it, before moving in instinct. He got on all fours and charged at the Fearow, then he slammed it hard, sending it colliding against the trunk of the tree, making the Thunderstone fall into the ground. Pichu then felt the recoil, power painfully leaving his body, as he looked at his trainer he couldn't feel any regret, he did what he needed to do.

Ash watched the scene dumbfounded, until Pichu collapsed at the ground.

"PICHU!" he yelled running towards the injured pokémon. Pichu just looked him with a proud look on his face. Ash then took a Oran Berry from his pocked, feeding it to the rodent.

"Eat, this will give you some energy, but I still need to find proper help to you." He said as he watched the pokémon eat. "I know you hate Pokéballs, but I have no choice… please don't hate me." Ash said, taking off Pichu's pokeball.

The rodent just nodded in understanding, before being sucked in by the ball.

The youngster then made his way towards the Fearow, picking up the Thunderstone that was near him. Then he gazed at the bird pokémon, his eyes didn't had the fierce expression from before, now they showed only pure fear. Ash smiled, patting the Pokémon in his head.

"Good battle." He said before taking another Oran Berry from his pouch. He extended it to the pokémon, surprising it greatly.

"Eat, it'll replenish your energy."

Fearow, nodded, eating the berry.

Ash then took all his remaining berries and put them on the ground, in front of Fearow.

"This is all we have. We're sorry for attacking your nest. Consider those berries our apology." Ash said, making his way out of the forest, leaving a very surprised Fearow behind.

* * *

In a fast paced walk, Ash quickly left the forest and reached a city, he then gland at a plate near the entrance.

 _VIRIDIAN CITY: The City of Evergreen_

Viridian was a large town center, with a healthy mixture of apartments and houses. Several trees and meadows adorned the city, making it's epithet true. The city was also known as the gateway to the Indigo League, being the closest city.

In different circumstances, Ash would be eager to explore the city. But now his only concern was getting help for Pichu.

" _I can't go to the Pokémon Center because I don't have the trainer license. I can go to the PokéMart to buy a potion, but I don't have money…"_

" _There's no choice then, forgive me mother but it looks like I'll have to steal."_

However Ash was stopped by a female voice.

"Ash?"

* * *

Ten years old Leaf Green was making her way home after another day at The Pokémon Trainers Prep School. The Trainers Prep School added fundamentals of Pokémon battling to its curriculum in order to prepare its students for their journey when time came. She was certain about going on a journey, but she still didn't know what she was aiming for. She was torn between battling and contests, although she would probably have to leave to Sinnoh or Hoenn should she choose the latter. There were some proposals to bring contest to Kanto but as far she knew it wasn't anything concrete.

Her class best student, Gary Oak, the grandson of the famed Professor Samuel Oak, already declared, in his own words that he "was going to whoop some ass at the Indigo Conference." Damian, another student at the school, also declared his interest on competing at the Indigo Conference too. Most of the girls opted for contests or musicals, an invention from Unova that slowly was reaching Kanto, because it was cute.

Leaf, whilst popular at School didn't had any friends there, her only friend moving to Kalos a few years ago. She was on talking terms with Gary Oak, an impressive feat considering the young Oak smugness.

She credited this because of the days she spent with him at the Professor Oak Summer Camp. She sighed. Leaf enjoyed a lot her experiences at the Summer Camp, she, Gary, Serena and…

"Ash?"

* * *

The youngster turned to see a beautiful girls looking at him with a surprised face. The girl has white skin, brown eyes and a long brown hair, which reached the middle of her back. She wears a red miniskirt and a turquoise sleeveless top, truly a pretty girl.

However, Ash didn't paid (that much) attention to the girl's appearance, instead opting to try to remember where he saw this girl before.

The girl apparently caught Ash's confusion.

"Leaf. Leaf Green." She said, hoping to make the boy to remember her.

Ash graced an understanding expression, before once again frowning.

"From Professor Oak's Summer Camp." She said with a exasperated expression, putting her hands on her hips.

Finally it clicked for Ash.

"Oh I remember you. You always hung around that other girl, the blonde one."

"Yes, Serena."

"You're living in Viridian?" Ash asked, trying to make conversation.

"Yes, alongside my mother and uncle and you? Still on Pallet?"

"I wish." He said, causing Leaf to raise an eyebrow. "I'm at Vermilion."

"That's surely a long way from there. Are you visiting someone here?"

"No… Leaf, can I tell you a secret?"

Leaf just nodded.

"Then follow me."

Ash guided Leaf to an empty alley, before taking a Pokéball and releasing the still injured Pichu.

"OH MY GOD! WHAT YOU DID TO HIM?" Leaf yelled, seeing Pichu's injured state.

"Chill out. He's my Pokémon, he got injured when we were attacked by a flock of Spearow at the Viridian Forest."

"But you're just ten, you can't have a Pokémon." Leaf argued.

"I can't but I do. Long story short I found his egg abandoned at a cave, I assumed it would be better if I took him with instead of leaving it alone at a forest."

Leaf's expression softened. "You're right. What you're going to do about his injuries?"

"I was planning to steal a Potion or two from the PokéMart." Ash replied nonchalantly

"WHAT?" Leaf yelled

"I can't take it to the PokéCenter. I won't leave my partner unattended. It was nice seeing you Leaf." Ash replied as he withdrew Pichu and made his way out of the alley.

"WAIT! I won't let you become a thief, let's go to my uncle, he probably has some spare medicine at his home."

The duo then walked to a high class residential area. Ash glanced at the mansions, he wasn't used to that kind of luxury living at the Possum's Hole, Vermilion's most degraded neighborhood.

Much to Ash's surprise Leaf stopped in the adorned gate of a big mansion, with a large yard covered in grass and large Pokémon designed fountains.

"Hey Uncle Scott, it's Leaf."

The gate then opened, allowing Ash and Leaf access.

The main room was gigantesque. The floor was made of mahogany wood, and the red rugs and bookshelves added a bit of a gothic touch to the place. However the man who greeted the duo was anything but gothic. He has a curly brown hair and a well-developed belly. His clothing choice also wasn't very fashionable either. White crocs, white cargo shorts and blue Hawaiian shirt, with white details. He wore sunglasses, making his eyes unseen.

"Is that your boyfriend?" he asked causing, Leaf to blush

"WHAT? NO! Ash's just a friend."

"Is that so?" he said amusedly

Ash however was still absorbed in observing the mansion, so Leaf had to elbow him in the ribs.

"Sorry." He said, before extending his hand to Scott. "I'm Ash Ketchum."

"Scott Wallace, Leaf's uncle. How may I help you?"

Ash wordlessly took Pichu's pokéball, releasing it.

"He's injured, I can't go to the Pokémon Center because I have no Trainer's License, but I can't leave him like that either."

"I understand give me a few minutes, Pichu will be as good as new."

True to its promise Scott came back with a much better looking Pichu.

"Pichu!" the rodent squealed, jumping into Ash's arms, who gladly returned the hug.

"I was so worried buddy, thanks for saving me."

Leaf at first didn't liked how Ash conducted the whole incident, but after witnessing the heartwarming reunion, she felt glad about helping Ash.

" _I wonder if I'll have a good relationship with my Pokémon too."_ She mused

"Ash, I'd like to point an interesting thing." Scott interrupted. "Have you ever heard of Shiny Pokémon?"

"No."

"A Shiny Pokémon is a pokémon that presents a different coloration than the usual for his species. For instance, a Shiny Gyarados, usually blue colored, would instead have red skin. Shiny Pokémon are extremely rare and a much sought asset by Pokémon collectors." Leaf explained

"Cool…But why you're telling me that?"

"Because your Pichu happens to be shiny." Scott, explained, getting a confused look by Ash and Leaf.

"But he has his regular color." Leaf said.

"Actually no." Scott said, getting a book. "Pichu are usually paler than Pikachu and Raichu." He said, opening in a page which showed images of the Pichu evolutionary line.

"Ash's Pichu has the same color as a regular Pikachu. Should him evolve to Pikachu he'll be orange instead of yellow."

"Wow, nice." Ash said

"While being shiny doesn't make a pokémon stronger than another, it surely draws more attention. This can either be good or bad, so thread carefully." Scott advised

"I'll, thanks for the advice. By the way, do you know where the bus terminal is?"

"Where you're going to?" the adult asked

"Vermilion."

"I'll give you a ride. You coming Leaf?"

"I have homework to do."

"No sweat then. Follow me Ash."

Before Ash left he turned to Leaf.

"Thanks for helping me, Leaf I truly owe you one. When we start our journey two years from now let's meet. It' a promise."

The brunette smiled. "It's a promise."

* * *

Scott conducted Ash and Pichu to the garage, where a red convertible waited for then.

"Pick your jaw off the ground son." The adult joked at Ash's expression

"Sorry." He said before shifting his glance towards a large mountain, in the horizon.

"Mt. Silver, one of the toughest areas for Pokémon trainers, you must be an elite or have a special permit to go there." Scott explained

As Scott turned on the car Ash turned to the man.

"May I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"Why you're helping me? I mean I understand leaf helping because we were kinda like childhood friends, but you, we barely know each other."

"I'm interested in Pokémon battling and its expansion worldwide. I worked as a scout for the league for some time. People said I could smell talent from miles away. And you, Ash Ketchum of Vermilion City, have the biggest talent reserve I've ever seen." He said surprising Ash

He then turned the car on, and stepped in the gas paddle.

Ash felt like his life was on the line when he fought the flock of Spearow, or when he faced Fearow. Soon enough he found those previous events to be child's play compared to Scott's driving. When he first saw the guy Ash didn't give anything for him, but this changed when he was behind the wheel. Scott is a maniac. The guy's driving was so reckless that it made those The Fast and The Furious actors look like driving school teachers. In a three hour trip to Vermilion Scott almost ran over a old lady, surpassed several speed limits, and used a speed bump as a ramp to jump over another car. Worst of all, HIS CAR HAD NO FREAKING SAFETY BELTS. Scott's driving was so outrageous that Pichu, who hated pokéballs begged Ash to rest inside his.

"We're here." Scott said nonchalantly

Ash never felt more relieved to be back at Vermilion.

"Thanks for the help." He said, diplomatically

"No problem, Ash Ketchum, I look forward seeing you at the Indigo League."

"They'll know my name." Ash said with a confident expression.

* * *

Lt. Surge sat at a comfortable chair, while reading a news article about Alolan Pokémon variations, with his faithful Raichu besides him.

He snickered as he saw a picture of Raichu's Alolan Variant.

"Who's the fag that would use something like that?" he asked, getting a approving nod from Raichu.

Suddenly he felt something coming towards him. Using his reflexes from his time at the Air Force, he quickly caught the object, a Thunderstone. As he glanced at the stone, Ash appeared.

"Lost something?"

Surge just smirked.

"It seems you succeeded, let the training begin, and when I'm done you'll wish you were never born."

* * *

Meanwhile, in Viridian City, Leaf just finished her homework. She thought back at Ash and Pichu with a smile. She wanted her relationship with her future pokémons to be like Ash and Pichu's.

Leaf then remembered the good times she had at the Pokémon Summer Camp, and decided to contact an old friend.

In another part of the world Serena Yvonne's cellphone just ringed, it was still early so she grumpily looked at the screen.

" _Who the hell texts other people at 5 AM?"_

Her question was answered as she saw Leaf's name.

Already woken, she opened the chat.

 _LEAF: HEY GIRL_

 _SERENA : EVER READ ABOUT A THING CALLED TIMEZONE?_

 _LEAF: OOPS MY BAD_

 _SERENA: I'M AWAKE, WHAT DO YOU WANT?_

 _LEAF: YOU'LL NEVER BELIEVE WHO I SAW TODAY_

 _SERENA: IT'S FREAKING FIVE AM, I'M NOT IN THE MOOD TO PLAY GUESSING GAMES_

 _LEAF : :(_

 _LEAF: ASH KETCHUM_

Now Serena was attentive, she would always remember the kind boy who helped her when she bruised her knee at Oak's Summer Cam. To be honest as of today she still had a crush on the boy, it was silly as it happened three years ago, but at the end of the day she would always look up to him.

She then opened a drawer were she kept Ash's handkerchief. The handkerchief had a sky blue color and due to its sentimental value was one of Serena's most prized possessions.

As she held her phone in one hand and the cellphone in another she smiled, despite being awaken at 5 AM, her day just became a lot better.

 _SERENA: TELL ME_ _EVERYTHING_

* * *

Author's Notes: I'm pretty happy about how this chapter turned out, when I started to write this I thought I'd have an hard time getting this over 2K words, but in the end I managed to get it over 6K.

I wanted to do a Q&A as I usually do in my Naruto story but there weren't enough questions so I'll postpone it for now.

Instead I'll use this space to talk about what I'm planning to do in this story.

I want to be as innovative as possible. My writing skills are below average at best and I know this, so the only way to make my stories successful are good, original ideas.

I'll firs talk about pairings. So far this is confirmed to be a AshxMayxSerena fanfiction, with a 99% of chance of adding Dawn. But don't be mistaken, this won't be a harem fanfiction, it's a bit of polyamory in my opinion. My biggest challenge will be to develop relationships between Ash and the girls without making this the run of the mill harem fic.

However Ash may interact romantically with other characters too, going from flings to casual sex. Like I said I want to be innovative and I never saw something like this in a story.

To close up my interpretation on pairings, here's a percentage of some girls chance to being paired with Ash at the final.

May: 100%

Serena: 100%

Dawn: 99%

Misty: 60%

Elesa: 30%

Queen Ilene (M08): 20%

Right now those are the girls I'm considering although this may change in the future.

Next topic is the story itself.

Being innovative will still be my main focus, but I won't diverge that much from the canon. I'll write about Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Kanto once again and Sinnoh. There'll be a mini arc in Unova, and I can add Unova and Kalos should I have a good idea about what to do and there's enough support.

Ash will have several of his original Pokémon, but will caught several others, at this point I decided that he'll have a Persian, a Marowak and a Electabuzz in his Kanto rotation. The Fearow that debuted in this chapter could also join Ash's team.

As I planned the story I decided to not meddle with the timeline of Ash meeting with the girls, so don't expect May to appear until Ash gets into Hoenn. Serena is the exception as I'm not sure about writing abou the Kalos League, instead she'll feature in small scenes like this chapter's last one and will finally meet Ash personally at Sinnoh.

As I felt like the pre-Hoenn story was getting slowpaced and boring I decided that Ash will have a girlfriend to make things more interesting. Next chapter you'll have a better idea of what I'm talking about.

Regarding adapting movies to the story, some are sure to be adapted, whilst others may be more difficult to. Right now I can guarantee M01, M08 and M09.

Finally I want to speak about the idea of mentioning real world locations. I don't want to bring Pokémon to real world, to do that you can jus play Pokémon GO, I want to bring the real world to the Pokémon world as a form of landmarks and minor references. For instance, Vermilion City was based on Yokohama, so when I'm writing about Vermilion I'll probably add something about Yokohama too. (Ash's neighborhood is based at Yokohama's worker district, although it's overly exagerated.) In the future I might have a story arc regarding countries competing at Pokémon tournments.

Finally I'd like to ask you to follow/fav this story and leave a review. I'd like to get more questions so I can do a Q&A next chapter.


	3. Journey, start!

A speedy update, so without any further ado, enjoy.

* * *

The sunlight slowly made his way through Ash's room. Sometime after his mother's death he decided that he should redecorate the room, adding his own touch and in an attempt to move on. Because of his low budget he couldn't do anything great, also it wouldn't make much sense as he would soon leave in a journey. The first thing he did was to paint the once white walls to blue, it boded well with one of his companions and it wouldn't be nearly as dirt. He then glued some pokéball posters and a poster of the Mt. Silver. The enormous mountain really impressed him when he visited Viridian two years ago, Scott's words about the wilderness of the place and its strong pokémon still lingered at Ash's head, so he made a personal goal to once visit the place personally. Besides that Ash also added a small bed for his first and best friend, Pichu, although the rodent usually would sleep in the same bed as him. Finally some of Ash's other belongings like a small sized TV and a computer were also present at the room.

As the sun crept inside, the sleeping form at the bed slowly woke up. He didn't grumble nor attempted to catch more sleep. Instead he jumped out of the bed pretty eagerly, dragging out his friend alongside during the process. Ash paid no mind to Pichu's curses, instead he smiled on his way to the shower.

" _Today's the day."_

After a quick shower, Ash made his way back to his room, where he looked at his reflection t the mirror and reminisced about the changes from two years ago.

Gone was the boy silhouette, replaced by a young man body frame despite being only twelve. His arms showed a little bit of muscle, the perfect amount, as he was still growing , yet his muscle mass was still definite and ripped. His legs were even more muscular than his arms, but not surpassing the point of being unnatural. However his abs and back were the things that stood out the most. Several girls that Ash met during those two years were overly attracted by his six pack and muscled back. His time working at the docks and as Surge's aide paid well physically.

His facial features were more defined too, although they would clearly resemble his past self. Brown colored eyes and two "Zs" marks underneath his eyes made his face recognizable. The biggest difference was his haircut, as Lt. Surge was training him, he was expected to keep his hair short and trimmed. Ash didn't opposed to that, adopting a slightly longer version of Surge's haircut, although he planned to grow his hair as he left on his journey.

He then opened his wardrobe. His clothing choices were usually conservative, nothing too flashy. He opted to wear an olive colored boots, black cargo pants and a plain white t-shirt. He also wore a olive green bomber jacket that he usually kept open, revealing the white t-shirt underneath it. He then opened a drawer where he picked the final two items he needed to get out. The first item was a leather belt, with six clips designed to have pokéballs attached to. Out of the six spaces, two of them were filled. He also took a red cloth that he used as a wristband, mainly because he really liked red.

However Ash's most prized item was the necklace that he made out of his late mother's charm. The necklace consisted of a light silver chain and a four pointed, light blue star shaped pendant. Two small green orbs were place into opposite directions of the star core, one being placed near the junction of the pendant with the necklace whilst another stood in the opposite direction, from where a darker blue knot emerged.

This was one of the few things that would always remind him of his mother and whenever Ash felt down he would look at the necklace for assurance, as if his mother's soul was still with him.

He then untucked the second pokéball from his belt and called forth his second friend.

"Squirtle." The pokémon said happily.

Squirtle is a small, bipedal Pokémon that resembling a turtle. His skin is light blue colored and his shell is bicolored, the belly part being light, yellow, paler than Pichu's fur and the back part being brown. The division between the shell's parts is white. His face, fully blue as the rest of its skin, has a hooked lip, vaguely resembling a primitive beak and large, burgundy eyes with black pupils.

* * *

 _Flashback – a year ago_

 _Ash was finishing his maintenance duty at the Vermilion Gym, observed by Pichu when he spotted Officer Jenny at the gates._

" _Hello, young man, can I speak with Surge please?"_

" _Yes, follow me."_

 _Ash then guided Jenny through the gym, until they stopped at the training grounds where Surge was drilling his Raichu in the use of the Mega Punch._

" _Officer." Surge said, without taking his eyes of Raichu._

" _Lieutenant." She replied_

" _What brings you here?"_

" _We came to ask the gym's help with a problem."_

 _Surge then glanced at Jenny._

" _What kind of problem?"_

" _There's a band of stray Squirtle attacking travelers and pulling pranks at Route 11, so we're requesting your Gym's electrical pokémon assistance at subduing them."_

 _Surge looked in deep thought for a minute before nodding._

" _We'll help."_

 _Jenny beamed._

" _Great, I'll take you there."_

" _I guess you misunderstood me officer." Surge said with a smirk. "I said that the gym will help, not me."_

 _He then turned to Ash._

" _Private, help the officer."_

 _Ash then made a salute._

" _Sir, yes sir."_

" _Isn't he a bit too young?" Jenny asked still unsure about Ash's help_

" _He is, but we don't have anyone else to spare." He said causing Ash to deadpan._

" _A bit of compliment would be nice for a change." He thought_

" _Okay, follow me." Jenny said glancing at Ash and Pichu._

 _As Jenny was driving him towards Route 11, Ash turned to the police officer._

" _You said that they were stray pokémon, what happened to their trainers?"_

" _Most of them released them."_

" _Why?"_

" _They weren't powerful enough to face Surge."_

 _This caused anger to boil inside Ash, if you couldn't beat a gym leader it's not your pokémon's fault, it's all on you._

" _What will happen to them?"_

" _We probably will offer them to Safari Zones around the country."_

" _But then you'll separate then?"_

" _I'm afraid so."_

 _Ash said nothing more during the rest of the trip._

 _Route 11 is one of Kanto's largest routes by size, however wasn't that crowded as people were scared away of Squirtle's acts. The route itself consisted of a large road with several grassy meadows around it._

" _We're here." Jenny said._

" _Officer, if you want to I can find my way back to Vermilion, I don't know how long this will last, so you can go back to the city."_

" _Really? This would be great, just make sure you report at the police station when you're done."_

" _Don't worry I will."_

 _As Jenny left, Ash let out a sigh of relief._

" _Without her around things will be easier." He thought to himself._

 _He then looked around, feeling like he was being watched._

 _He turned to a bush._

" _Come out, now. I have no time for playing."_

 _In a clue five Squirtle left the bush. Four of which wore aviator style sunglasses with blue lenses, whilst the apparently leader, as he was slightly bigger and wore a different sunglass, this resembling cat-eye frame with black lenses._

" _I want to talk with you." He said, glancing at the leader, who smirked before firing an Water Gun at Ash's face._

 _Ash slowly got up, wiped his face clean and glared at the leader._

" _Not your smartest idea, pal."_

 _The other four Squirtle then charged at Pichu._

" _Double Team." Ash commanded._

 _Quickly Pichu multiplied, confusing the Squirtle, who tackled the illusions._

" _Good job."_

 _Once again the Squirtle charged at Pichu._

" _Use Double Team to evade, then sneak behind them."_

 _Pichu did as Ash asked, managing to appear behind the Squirtle band just as the last illusion was dispelled._

" _Electroweb." Ash ordered with a smirk._

 _The group tried to evade the attack, but as the web suddenly expanded, they found themselves being trapped to the ground._

" _Amazing, Pichu. Just amazing." Ash complimented, getting a smirk from Pichu._

 _The leader quickly stepped in, placing himself between Pichu and his trapped fellow Squirtle._

" _Like I said I just want to talk." Ash said to the leader._

 _The leader once again fired a water gun at Ash with an angry expression._

 _The trainer, who already expected this, swiftly dodged the attack by sidestepping._

" _The same trick won't work twice." He said before turning to Pichu._

" _Quick attack."_

 _Pichu then got in all fours attacking Squirtle with great speed. The turtle tucked his head at its shell, bracing for the hit. Ash's rodent pokémon expected to cause some damage with his attack, instead when he connected the hit to the turtle's shell it didn't moved a single bit. Pichu's surprised expression soon changed to a pained one when Squirtle rammed his head at him with great power, propelling him backwards._

" _Pichu, are you okay?" Ash asked concernedly_

 _Pichu just groaned before getting up, glaring at Squirtle._

" _Let's change strategies. Quick attack once again."_

" _Pi?" Pichu asked confusedly._

" _I need you to trust me, please." Ash said_

 _Pichu just nodded, before charging at Squirtle with a Quick Attack once again._

 _Just a few seconds until the attack landed Ash's voice was once again heard._

" _Change to Nuzzle, now."_

 _Pichu then charged his cheek pouches with electricity, and nuzzled at Squirtle, paralyzing him._

 _As Squirtle struggled to move because of the paralysis, Ash barked another command._

" _Take advantage. Use Electroweb to trap him."_

 _Pichu quickly shot the attack, restraining Squirtle._

" _Great job Pichu." Ash said, gently scratching Pichu's ears, who cooed in response._

 _The raven haired boy then turned to the turtle pokémon._

" _You're their leader right?"_

 _Squirtle tried to move but the paralysis and the web successfully restrained him, so he nodded._

" _I'm going to give you two choices. Either: I can take you to back to the police station, and your squad will be separated because Jenny wants to send you to different Safari Zones, or I can release your squad if you promise me that you won't pull any more pranks or attack travelers. So, what you will do?" Ash asked as Pichu removed the Electroweb from the gang._

 _Squirtle looked straight at Ash's eyes, nodding. He then took off his sunglasses and gave them to Ash as he and the squad left the scene._

 _Jenny wasn't happy at first, but the Squirtle Squad kept their promise and there weren't any more attacks._

 _Six months later, things changed once again, a great fire occurred at the Route 11 and the Squirtle Squad helped the firefighters to put it off. Their performance was so good that they were offered a permanent place at the firefighters, which all the Squirtle agreed._

 _All but the leader, who decided to ask to join Ash's team._

* * *

Ash then took out a bag with a special water type pokémon meal he prepared to Squirtle, putting it into a bowl, alongside Pichu's meal. Whilst not fond of cooking Ash had lots of practical experience, he had to cook to himself since he was ten, so he obviously learnt a thing or two.

His diet usually consisted of beans and rice alongside meat. However he often relied on canned food. Ash respected lots of people in his life. Surge, his late mother, Professor Oak, but whoever created canned food would easily sit atop this list. The thing about canned food is that there was no time spent in preparing it, simple open and eats, and Ash hated to lose time.

Pokémon food cooking picked his interest when he witnessed Surge feeding his Raichu with a special electric type meal. The gym leader then offered to give some of it to Pichu, who enjoyed the meal greatly. In order to please Pichu, the trainer began to read several pokémon cooking books, and after several attempts he could give Pichu a healthy, tasty meal.

After Squirtle joined in he learnt the hard way that different pokémon had different tastes as Squirtle attacked him with a Water Gun after tasting Pichu's meal.

Usually Ash would search on the internet for cooking tips, making the healthy part of the meal, before flavoring each of his pokémon's meals individually. Pichu had an enormous, platonic love for ketchup, whilst Squirtle enjoyed fish.

As Ash's pokémon voraciously devoured the food the boy made his own breakfast, a basic cereal and milk combo, and sat at the table, looking at his Pokémon intently.

"Today is the day, the start of our dream." Ash said, getting the attention of Squirtle and Pichu.

"Everything we did so far led us up to this. Pichu worked hard, Squirtle worked hard, I worked hard. Let's go out there and conquer the league." Ash said emotionally, getting cheers from his Pokémon.

* * *

As soon as he left his building Ash looked around to see the imposing figure of Lt. Surge standing beside his Jeep.

"Lieutenant." Ash said, making a military salute.

"Private." Surge replied with a smirk.

"May I ask what you're doing here sir?"

"Cut the formalities Ketchum, you know I'm not fond of them, call me Surge."

"Yes, sir, I mean Surge."

"To answer your question, I came to give Vermilion's number one hotshot trainer a ride, today's the day right?"

"Yes."

"Hop in." Surge said motioning to his Jeep.

Despite not being so literate about car models, Ash quickly recognized the model as dark green a Jeep Wrangler.

Ash did as asked hoping into the backseat whilst Surge took on the wheel.

"You need to go to the League Headquarters, right?"

"Yes."

"To Indigo Plateau we go." Surge said turning the engine on.

As the Jeep cruised through the roads in his way to

The Indigo Plateau, Ash looked at Surge, reminiscing about his long two years training program under him.

When Ash asked to work under a gym leader that had a military background, the raven haired boy knew he should expect some military terminology.

What he didn't expected is that by working under Surge he would also be receiving exhausting military training that didn't had anything to do with Pokémon. When he would ask Surge what's the point of doing those kinds of exercises, he would say: "It all clicks in the end."

Two years gone by and to Ash it never clicked.

* * *

 _Ash yielded a military riffle, looking at faraway targets at the shooting range._

" _Shoot on my mark." Was the naturally loud voice of Surge_

" _Lieutenant, may I ask why we're doing this?"_

" _Don't worry private, it all clicks in the end. Shoot NOW." He yelled_

* * *

 _Ash used a pincer to twist the wires of a decoy bomb that Surge has set up. The traditional cut the red wire line didn't worked like in the movies_

" _Lieutenant, may I ask why I'm doing this?"_

" _Don't worry private, it all clicks in the end." He said as Ash lost control of the pincer for a second causing the bomb to detonate._

 _Thankfully it wasn't a real bomb, but a practice one, that exploded releasing paint at Ash's face._

" _God, I hate this job." Ash thought_

* * *

 _Ash and Pichu engaged Surge and Raichu at a pushup match._

 _The score: Surge 595 x 40 Ash and Raichu 248 x 13 Pichu._

 _To make things even more humiliating for the youngster and his Pokémon, both Surge and Raichu's pushups were one-handed._

" _Lieutenant, may I ask why we're doing this?"_

" _Don't worry private, it all clicks in the end. Now push it."_

* * *

 _Ash, standing at 5'1" feet (155 centimeters), guarded Surge,_ _7'4" feet (224 centimeters)at a game of one-on-one basketball._

 _As he was being pushed aside by Surge's highly muscular frame around the hoop, Ash spoke to his teacher._

" _Lieutenant, may I ask why we're doing this?"_

" _Don't worry private, it all clicks in the end." he said before throwing a 360 two handed posterizing throwdown, that would put Michael Jordan to shame, over Ash who stood unmoving on the ground._

" _Eight gym leaders to learn from, and I picked the craziest of them." Ash thought._

* * *

Despite Surge's proven lack of common sense, displayed several times, Ash learnt a great deal from the man; both in pokémon battling and in life as a whole. Ash considered his life story to be pretty sad, losing his mother and only family at age of ten and having to pick up the pieces had been rough. But the young boy couldn't imagine how fighting a war was like, and worst of all witnessing your best friend dying at that war... pretty heavy stuff.

Ash soon learnt that men like Surge built barriers around themselves, the gym leader wasn't anti-social or depressive, but made clear that he liked to be alone. Ash considered Surge as a friend, but deep down inside he knew that Surge mostly likely only regarded him as acquaintance.

Regarding battling styles they also diverged. Ash observed Surge take on several challengers during his two year apprenticeship, and quickly noted that Surge straight out overpowered the opponents with relative ease.

He would surprise the opposition by using uncommon, high powered physical attacks, like Mega Punch as a opposition to electric's type more common special attack based approach. His Pokémon were extremely bulky and all rounded and most of times Surge lost it was mostly because he had a deep mismatch problem or because the opponent's pokémon used status ailments. What made Surge special was the unconventional combination of the natural quickness that an electric type possesses with bulk, making Surge's pokémon real tanks.

Ash however decided to follow a different path than Surge. He had everything to become an sole electric type users, but even before he got Squirtle he had made his mind that he would instead uses various types. Ash had several reasons for that. He wanted to be the very best, so it meant knowing how to properly battle different types of pokémon, opponents and strategies with his own. Being masterful with a type of pokémon was a hard task, but to be a master… you needed more. If Ash settled for only electric types he wouldn't broaden his horizons, and this could be the differential of winning a championship or ending up as a runner up.

What Ash decided however was to always focus on speed. He soon realized that whoever was quicker could react faster and exploit the opponent's flaws more successfully. Thinking back at his first fight at Viridian Forest against Fearow and the flock of Spearow, and more recently against the Squirtle Squad, speed was the biggest differential. Whoever had the most speed controlled the pace of the battle, and by controlling the pace you would put the opponent in the spots you know better, thus making the battle a lot easier.

Of course the boy knew he still needed to work on other stats, but right now speed was his flagship. Ash's ever faithful Pichu was the embodiment of this theory. Being noted for having one of the weakest defenses of all times, the rodent showed that it doesn't matter how seemingly weak a pokémon was if you couldn't land a hit on him.

"We're here." Surge said, bringing Ash out of his musings.

"Wow." Was all Ash could say as he looked at the state of art building that hosted the Pokémon League Headquarters.

The building was an imposing skyscraper, with at least 40 floors. The darkened glass windows that covered the entire building added a mysterious air to the construction, whilst the prism shape of the complex showed modernism. However what made Ash wordless were the three live sized golden statues which adorned the entrance foyer, representing the legendary bird trio from Kanto: Zapdos, Moltres and Articuno.

"Pick your jaw off the ground, private." Surge joked

As the duo made his way to the lobby of the building, they were greeted by a secretary.

"Hello, how may I help you?" she asked politely

"I'm here to acquire a Trainer's License." Ash said

"And I'd like to officially recommend him as a trainer." Surge added

"Okay, just give me a second." She said as she typed at her computer. "What's your name?" she asked

"Ash Ketchum."

"Age."

"12."

"Birthplace?"

"Pallet Town."

"Hometown?"

"Vermilion City."

"Okay, with the discounts the license will cost 30,000 PokéDollars."

"I'm sorry, you said discounts?" Ash asked surprised, he believed he would have to pay at least 50,000 PokéDollars for the license.

"Yes, our new regulation allows a trainer to have up to a 90% discount at the purchase of the license if he received indications from a Gym Leader, Pokémon Professor or Elite Four. The first indication, gives the person a 50% discount, after that each other indication adds another 10% to the discount, up to 90%." The secretary explained

"The original license was priced at 100,000 PokéDollars, meaning that I had a 70% discount, three indications, I know Surge here was the one of those. Can you inform me of the other two?" Ash asked politely.

"Of course, let's see. The other two indications came from Professor Oak and Giovanni, Viridian City Gym Leader."

Ash seemed deep in thought.

" _Professor Oak is somewhat predictable. He was friends with my mother and I was closer to Gary… but this Giovanni guy, never heard of him, but he surely heard of me…"_

"Okay, 30K, right?" Ash asked getting a nod from the secretary.

"I'll pay in cash." Ash said, revealing a suitcase with money.

"Great." The secretary beamed. "I'll print your card."

After some minutes the secretary came back with a red rectangular card, handing it to Ash.

The trainer looked at the card approvingly. It displayed several types of information, such as date of birth, city, nationality, etc. It had a Id sized photo of Ash and the Pokémon League Seal.

"Congratulations on becoming a Pokémon trainer, be sure to also log in to the online services, the instructions are on this handbook." She said, handing him a small blue book.

Ash smiled.

" _Finally I'm a Pokémon trainer."_

* * *

A few minutes later, Surge spoke with Ash outside of the building.

"Private, where you're going next? If you take Route 22, you can reach Viridian and head north towards Pewter City, if you're luck you'll find some of those trainers from Pallet to measure your skills."

"Actually, I want to go back to Vermilion first."

This caused Surge to raise an eyebrow.

"Don't tell me you're cocky enough to think that you have a shot on defeating me."

"No, it's not that. I want to fight the Cerulean City Gym first and Vermilion happens to be the one of the closest cities."

"You're right, but why Cerulean?"

"Pichu watched battles featuring electric types for two years, Squirtle however never saw another water type pokémon battle. I feel like I should give him the chance to fight other strong water types to gain experience."

"You may be right, hop in then, I'm heading back to Vermilion anyway."

"Thanks."

The way back to Vermilion was quite uneventful, as Surge drove in silence and Ash said nothing, he knew for an instance that the gym leader wasn't fond of small talk, so he kept quiet.

Midway through the trip Ash looked at his cellphone, it seemed like he received three messages. The first one was from Scott.

* * *

 _SCOTT: ASH, A BIRD TOLD ME THAT YOU GOT YOUR TRAINER LICENSE. I LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU IN ACTION AT THE INDIGO LEAGUE. IF YOU DO WELL ENOUGH GOOD THINGS CAN HAPPEN TO YOU_

Ash replied Scott with the same phrase he had told him two years ago, and that became an sort of personal mantra of his.

 _ASH: THEY'LL KNOW MY NAME._

* * *

The second message was from Leaf.

 _LEAF: HEY ASH, MY UNCLE GAVE ME YOUR PHONE NUMBER. I GOT MY POKÉMON A WEEK AGO, SO WE'RE BOTH TRAINERS NOW._

 _LEAF: I DIDN'T FORGET THE PROMISE FROM TWO YEARS AGO, AND I HOPE YOU DIDN'T TOO. I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO SEEING YOU IN PERSON._

 _ASH: I DON'T FORGET MY PROMISES, DON'T WORRY. I'M LEAVING FROM VERMILION TO CERULEAN CITY, SO IF YOU'RE NEARBY TEXT ME._

* * *

Finally the third message greatly surprised Ash, it was from Professor Oak.

 _PROFESSOR OAK: ASH, I DON'T KNOW IF YOU REMEMBER ME, MY NAME IS SAMUEL OAK AND I WAS YOUR NEIGHBOOR IN PALLET TOWN._

 _PROFESSOR OAK: I HAVE TO TALK WITH YOU ABOUT SOME IMPORTANT THINGS, BUT I'M AFRAID I NEED TO DO SO PERSONALLY. SO PLEASE VISIT MY LAB WHEN YOU'RE AT PALLET._

Ash was truly curious now, and somewhat regretted his decision to go to Vermilion, should he stayed at the League HQ, he would have a quick way towards Pallet. It was already done, so his visit to the professor would've to wait until he challenged the Viridian or the Cinnabar Gym.

 _ASH: I'M A BIT OFF WAY NOW, BUT WHEN I CHALLENGE THE VIRIDIAN OR THE CINNABAR GYM I'LL MAKE SURE TO VISIT YOU. IT WILL BE NICE TO VISIT PALLET ONCE AGAIN._

As soon as he replied the Pokémon Professor, he heard Surge's voice.

"We're here."

* * *

Ash quickly parted way with Surge, promising to visit soon for his gym battle, and decided to visit the Pokémart to buy some pokéballs. He quickly made his way downtown where the Pokémart was located. The 70% discount for the trainer's license was very helpful, as Ash expected to only receive 50%. So he decided to use the surplus 20,000 PokéDollars to buy Pokéballs.

"Welcome, how may I help you?" the clerk asked

"I'd like to buy some Pokéballs."

"Great, we have several models for purchase. The Poké ball is 2000 PD's, Great ball is 6000 PD's, Quick, Nest and Dusk Balls are sold for 10000 PD's and the Ultra ball is sold for 12000 PD's. What you will choose?"

Ash seemed in deep thought, he only knew the mechanics of the Poké, Great and Ultra balls, so the Quick, Nest and Dusk balls were out of question for him.

He could buy an Ultra ball, whose catch rate is 2 times better than the Pokéball and complement the purchase with a Great Ball, whose catch rate is 1.5 times better than the Poké ball and add a regular Poké ball.

Or he could pick three Great balls and a single Poké ball.

Finally he could go in spread mode, purchasing 10 Poké balls.

Thinking back at his captures, Ash remembered that both Pichu and Squirtle had chosen to go to him, not resisting the capture at all, so the rate wouldn't matter. He liked how he got together with those two, so he opted for the last option.

"I'll take ten Poké balls."

"Great, as an added bonus you'll receive a free Premium Ball." The clerk said, handling an all-white Poké Ball with red lining to Ash alongside the traditional red and white balls with black lining.

"Sweet." Ash said as he left the shop.

He turned to Pichu, who faithfully clinged to his shoulder.

"Now we're ready. Cerulean City, here we go." He said getting an approving cry from Pichu.

"Still I feel like I forgot something important."

"OH MY GOD! THIS DRESS IS SO CUTE." Came the voice of a teenage girl who saw a dress at an nearby shop.

Ash cringed at the girl high pitched yell, before shivering in fear.

"God, I hate shopping."

Suddenly it clicked.

" _Shopping…clothes."_ He thought

"Damn I forgot to pack my clothes." Ash said facepalming

* * *

The now registered trainer quickly got back to his apartment. He packed some socks, three spare t-shirts, a swimming trunk, a pair of pants and two shorts. He then picked the remaining item his underwear. Then his mother's last words in her deathbed came back to him in a flash.

" _Ash dear, be happy and don't give up your dreams, this all I ask you. Mommy loves you… and don't forget to change your underwear."_

Ash then took a deep breath and closed his eyes to prevent tears from falling. After a minute he recomposed himself.

" _Don't worry mom, whenever you are, I'll make you proud."_

He then gave his apartment a final look, before finally leaving for his journey.

* * *

Route 6 was the road between Vermilion and Saffron. Ash intended to go to Cerulean, whose location is situated north of Saffron, so he obviously needed to get there first.

The route itself consisted of a soft ground road surrounded by green, grassy meadows and a small lake in the middle. The whole scenery was adorned by trees, making the trip very pleasant.

Much to the trainer's surprise there weren't any trainers, a fact that caused Ash to frown. He wanted to give his Pokémon, especially Squirtle battle experience.

He then heard the sound of rustling grass, and stopped dead in his tracks.

"Pichu, standby for battle." He whispered getting a nod from the rodent.

Soon enough a white blur jumped towards Ash and Pichu.

"Meowth." The cat said.

Meowth was bipedal catlike pokémon with white fur. His feline features included long nails and long whiskers. Atop his head a amulet coin was wore as a crown of sorts.

"I assume you want to challenge me." Ash said, getting a nod from the feline

"Go Pichu." Ash said, as Pichu hopped off his shoulder and stood in front of Meowth.

The feline charged at Pichu, unleashing a Fury Swipes attack.

"Take the hit." Ash ordered, hoping to make Pichu's Static ability activate from the several hits.

What Ash didn't expected was that Meowth was a heavy hitter, so the swipes caused serious damage to Pichu.

"Pichu, are you okay?"

Pichu, pretty beaten, winced.

"P-pi."

However, the rodent didn't wanted to give up.

" _This Fury Swipes was something special. Better not leave any other openings."_

Glancing at the smirking Meowth, Ash noticed that a small electric current ran through his skin.

" _Static worked at least."_

"Let's take the offensive, Pichu."

"Fire an Electroweb at him."

The attack connected, restraining Meowth's movements even more.

"Now he can't attack you. Keep weakening him with several Thundershocks."

Slowly Meowth's movements were restrained by the sheer electric current provided by Static, Electroweb and the consecutive Thundershocks.

"Great job Pichu. Come back to rest." Ash said, getting a nod from Pichu.

He then glanced at Meowth, who still struggled to move.

"Now or never." Ash said, taking an empty pokéball from his pocket.

"Pokéball: Go."

The capsule sucked the Meowth in.

One shake

Two shakes

Three shakes

PING!

Capture successful.

* * *

After capturing Meowth, Ash's journey to Saffron was quite uneventful. Soon enough he reached the gates of the city and was marveled by the sight.

The biggest city and capital of the country was a sight to marvel. Vibrant buildings, towering skyscrapers, and millions of people walking through the streets everyday.

Vermilion was far from being a small city. Its connection with Saffron made his port the most important in the entire region. Naturally, it also had a well-developed commerce and had a big population, being the fourth largest in Kanto, losing to Saffron, Celadon and Viridian.

However after seeing the capital Ash knew Vermilion was like a Magikarp compared to a Gyarados.

Saffron has a Psychic type gym, however Ash didn't felt like neither his team nor himself were ready for the challenge.

Glancing at the sky and the city lights Ash realized it was already late, so he quickly checked in at the Pokémon Center, leaving Pichu and Meowth, both still hurt from the early battle under the care of Nurse Joy before drifting off to sleep. It was just the first day of a years long journey, but Ash felt like he started with the right foot.

* * *

Because this was speedy update I feel no need to write a lot at author's notes.

Next chapter is called Assembling the Trident and will show Ash's first gym battle and his first romantic experiences. Next chapter I'll finally do the Q&A, discussing questions posted and suggestions of pairings and pokémon.

Please review, it means a lot to me.


	4. Assembling the Trident

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon or its characters, unfortunately.

Read end of work for Author notes.

* * *

After eating breakfast early in the morning, Ash departed Saffron with a promise of coming back soon. Now he needed to reach Cerulean City, and the only way was through Route 5.

This particular route had a more country landscape, a stark contrast to Saffron's vibrant, fully urbanized landscape.

Since it was still very early in the morning there weren't any passersby. The trainer walked with a steady pace, if he didn't faced any problem he would be at Cerulean at noon. Several hours went through as Ash occasionally stopped to battle some of the wild pokémon with his newly acquired Meowth.

After defeating another Bellsprout, Ash resumed his walk when he glanced at a large building. Getting closer he noticed that it was a Trainer's School. Ash wasn't a fan. He had to study some basic stuff and when really interested about a subject he would do some deep digging to find more information. For instance, Ash got intrigued by Meowth's Fury Swipes power yesterday and while waiting for sleep to come he read several magazines. He discovered that the increase in power came from Meowth's ability: Technician.

Technician boosted the power of the so called weak moves by a large margin, usually making them even more dangerous than the particularly powerful moves. A good example is using Bite instead of Crunch. Crunch naturally has higher base power, but a Technician boosted Bite will be stronger if used by Meowth.

Ash had already found great use in this ability as he was able to exploit the better effects of the 'weak' moves, such as Bite's flinching or Fury Swipes multiple hits without having a drop in power.

But Ash didn't liked the attitude of those prep school kids, they usually would feel like the world spun around themselves, besides looking down at people who weren't as rich as them.

Ash could say he was surprised when one male student approached him in an overly polite way, asking for a battle.

"Umm, excuse me sir, could you please battle against my pokémon." The student asked. He has well-kept brown hair, and wore a blue blazer, part of the school's uniform.

" _He asked politely."_ Ash thought before nodding.

Soon a small group of students assembled, while one of them offered to act as a referee.

"This will be a one-on-one pokémon battle between Ash Ketchum from Vermilion City and Joe Juno from Saffron. As Joe is the challenger he's the first to send out his pokémon."

"Go Weepinbell."

"Bell." The pokémon cried

Weepinbell has a yellow, bell-shaped body with a single green leaf on either side. It uses these razor-sharp leaves to slice up prey. It has a wide, gaping mouth with pink lips. Above Weepinbell's circular eyes is a pattern of three small green spots and a small hook-shaped stem.

Ash seemed in thought for a moment.

" _I've already used Meowth to defeat several trainers already, so I'll go with Squirtle, he needs to learn how to fight pokémon that have a type advantage over him."_

"Go Squirtle."

"Squirtle." The turtle pokémon said eagerly.

A few snickers were heard as the students pocked Ash's apparent lack of knowledge.

"Use Bite Squirtle."

The turtle rushed towards Weepinbell, biting him hard, fainting it on the process.

Some of the students were wordless whilst other made fun of Joe.

"Winner is Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town." The referee.

Ash recalled Squirtle, thanking him for his effort, whilst Joe did the same with Weepinbell.

The two trainers met at the center of the ring.

"Build Weepinbell's defenses and speed instead of focusing in attack, grass Pokémon cause lots of hazardous damage with Leech Seed and Poisonpowder, also don't let other students get under your skin."

Ash advised, offering his hand in a handshake.

"Thanks.' The boy said, shaking hands

"Pathetic." Came a female voice

" _Oh great, another smug rich girl, just what I needed."_ Ash thought in dismay.

However when he turned around to see who spoke he admitted that he was impressed.

Milky white skin, silky shiny brown hair cascading through her back. Also a well-developed body for her age. Ash had to give it up, the girl was hot.

"Students like you make our school look bad. How could you lose to someone that decided to give you type advantage?" the girl asked

"Sorry, Giselle…"

Ash heard Giselle scold Joe with a sympathetic look. He didn't knew why he said something at all, maybe male comradery.

"Unless you defeated me you can't say anything." He said matter of factly, earning a glare from the girl.

"Are you challenging me?"

"Yes and to keep things fair I'll also give you the type advantage." Ash said smugly.

* * *

"This will be a two on two battle between Ash Ketchum of Vermilion City and Giselle Seiyo from Saffron City. Trainers send out your pokémon." Joe said, acting as a referee.

"Go, Graveler."

Graveler is a living, bipedal boulder. It has a rocky crest about its small eyes. It has four arms, each with a three-fingered hand.

"Meowth, I chose you."

"Graveler, use rollout."

The boulder pokémon started to roll around, building momentum.

"Fake out." Ash commanded

Meowth quickly closed out space, getting near Graveler, clasping his hands together, creating a shockwave of sorts that stopped the movement and sent Graveler backwards.

"Don't give up, Rollout once again." Graveler once again assumed rolling form, heading towards Meowth.

"Dodge it and use screech."

Meowth did as asked, easily avoiding the strike and unleashing a loud screech, making Graveler stop the attack to hold his ears in pain.

"Now he's open, Fury Swipes."

Meowth took advantage of the opening swiping his claws in a fiery, Technician powered, fury swipes strike, knocking out Graveler.

"Impossible, this attack was supposed to be not much effective against Graveler." Giselle muttered, recalling his pokémon.

"Battles involve much more than just type matchups." Ash said with a smirk

"It doesn't matter, go Cubone."

Cubone is a small, bipedal Pokémon with a golden brown hide that covers most of its body, including both dorsal spikes. Its belly is a very light brown. Two small claws, one on each hand, serve as its thumbs, and one large nail on each foot make up its toes. On its head, Cubone wears a skull as a helmet.

"Impressive Pokémon you got there." Ash complimented, causing Giselle to blush.

He then turned to Meowth.

"You did well, rest."

After recalling Meowth he turned to Pichu, who stood by his side.

"Up for a fight pal?" the trainer asked, getting an enthusiastic cry from the rodent.

"A electric type against a ground pokémon? Your overconfidence will be your downfall."

"Like I said before, types aren't everything."

"Bone Club" Giselle said, causing Cubone to charge at Pichu, swinging his bone.

"Double Team."

Pichu then multiplied himself, creating illusions, as soon as Cubone dispelled a double team, Pichu would create a new one.

"It's pointless." Giselle said as a very tired Cubone attacked Pichu's double teams. "Use Bonemerang."

Cubone then threw his bone as a boomerang, dispelling all the double teams at once, and almost landing a hit on Pichu, who barely leapt out of the way.

"Pichu." Ash said getting an attentive expression from the rodent.

"Use Sweet Kiss." The attentive expression was quickly gone, replaced by an angered expression and a glare.

Pichu didn't liked people calling him cute. He was powerful, not cute. He hated to use attacks such as Charm, Nuzzle and most of all Sweet Kiss. He wasn't a kisser, and to make things worse Cubone was male.

"I'll give you a bottle of ketchup."

Now Pichu's ears perked up in interest, but he still relented

Ash sighed. "Fine, two bottles."

Suddenly Pichu regained his will to fight and approached Cubone, giving him a quick kiss on his cheek, before quickly withdrawing with a disgusted expression and frenetically wiping his mouth clean.

Cubone seemed confused enough.

"Use Bone Club, his defenses are gone." Giselle ordered.

Cubone used Bone Club, onto himself, repeatedly swinging his bone at his own head.

"Grr… snap out of it. Bonemerang."

Cubone seemingly recomposed himself, launching his boner. Key word: seemingly as it was a wild throw, that came back straight at Cubone's head, properly knocking him out.

"W-winner is Ash Ketchum of Vermilion City."

"And that's how it's done." Ash said with a smirk, before turning to leave.

"ASH! Wait." Giselle said hurriedly

"Yeah?" the raven haired boy asked turning to the girl

"You forgot your prize."

Ash was about to shrug it off when Giselle boldly closed the space between the two pressing her lips on his.

"Good luck, handsome trainer." The schoolgirl said with an wink before she left, leaving a very red Ash behind.

* * *

It was already late in afternoon when Ash came upon a Gloom. Thinking a grass pokémon would be a good addition to his team he decided to capture it. With a combination of Pichu's Nuzzle and Electroweb, all Ash needed to do was throwing the Poké ball. However a few seconds before the ball touched the pokémon, a Vine Whip grabbed the ball.

The trainer turned his head to see a Bulbasaur.

Bulbasaur is a small, quadruped Pokémon that has blue-green skin with darker green patches. It has red eyes with white pupils and sclera. It also has pointed ear-like structures on top of its head. On its back is a green plant bulb.

"Bulba, Bulba." He said to the Gloom, who fled the scene, before leaving as well, going into an opposite direction, carrying Ash's poké ball.

"Hey, come back here. This Poké ball costs 2000 Poké Dollars." Ash yelled chasing Bulbasaur.

The Pokémon quickly moved into the thick woods, with Ash trailing behind. The chase continued for more minutes, until Bulbasaur came to a house, where a girl, slightly older than Ash stood.

The girl had bright blue hair, tied in waist line ponytail by a green ribbon and wore red overalls over a pink t-shirt.

"Bulbasaur, who's he?"

"I'm Ash Ketchum." The boy said offering his hand in a handshake

The girl took Ash's hand. "I'm Melanie, a pleasure to meet you." She then looked at Bulbasaur who still held Ash's Poké ball with his Vine Whip.

"Bulbasaur stopped you from capturing a Pokémon right?"

"Is this a common occurrence?" Ash asked, getting a nod from the girl

"Bulbasaur helps me at the Hidden Village, a place my parents built to help pokémon released by its trainers to prepare for live at wilderness once they're ready."

"I see, I had no idea that Gloom was being cared." Ash said bowing. "If you could ask Bulbasaur to give me back the Poké Ball, I'd greatly appreciate it."

"Bulbasaur, can you give Ash his Poké Ball back?"

The grass pokémon shook his head.

"Bulbasaur doesn't trust you to give the ball back, but I have an idea, help me taking care of the pokémon today and he'll surely warm up to you."

Ash pondered his options, if he refused to help, instead opting to leave for Cerulean he would reach the city during the evening and will be able to challenge the gym tomorrow. On the other hand if he stayed he would be able to get his Poké ball back besides helping a good cause.

"I'll help."

"Great." Melanie said clasping her hands together.

Ash and Pichu followed Melanie and Bulbasaur deeper into the woods, until they saw a clearing.

"Strange. Usually the pokémon like to rest here, but it's empty."

Ash then turned to Melanie.

"Heard this noise?"

"No."

"Follow me."

Ash then guided Melanie to a deep part of the woods where several cages, containing Pokémon were being loaded into a transport truck.

"What's the meaning of this?" Melanie demanded

Then two figures appeared, donning similar black uniforms, which consisted of a black long-sleeved t-shirt with a red "R" at the middle, a black pant, or skirt in the case of the girl, with red details and white gloves with red details.

The man has teal green hair, styled in a half parted fringe and brown eyes.

The girl has golden hair, styled in a complex two sided ponytail and purple eye.

"Prepare for trouble…" the girl said

"...and make it double!" the guy completed

"Here's our mission, so you better listen!" they said in unison

"To infect the world with devastation!"

"To blight all people in every nation!"

"To denounce the goodness of truth and love!"

"To extend our wrath to the stars above!"

"Cassidy!"

"And Butch, of course!"

"We're Team Rocket, circling Earth all day and night!"

"Surrender to us now or you will surely lose the fight!"

As the newly identified duo finished his introduction, Ash furrowed his brows.

"Weren't the Rockets a NBA team?" he asked causing them to deadpan.

"We're Team Rocket idiot, surrender your Pokémon now." The Cassidy said

"What about a teacup of no?" Ash said ironically.

"THAT'S IT." Cassidy yelled.

"Crush him Raticate." She said, throwing a pokéball

"Help Raticate out, Primeape." Butch commanded, sending out his own Pokémon

"Two on one is hardly fair." Ash noted, sending out his Meowth.

Then Bulbasaur stood beside Meowth.

"You really want to help me, Bulbasaur?" the trainer asked getting a nod from the grass pokémon.

"Let's do it then."

"Raticate, use Super Fang on Meowth."

The big rodent readied his fans to attack Meowth. As he got closer, Meowth dodged, only to be hit by Primeape's Karate Chop mid airborne.

"Meowth!" Ash yelled in concern

As Meowth slowly got up, Ash realized he was in a dire situation.

" _They have good combination attacks, I need to perform my own combos."_

"Bulbasaur, use Razor Leaf." The grass type did as asked, firing several sharpened leaf disks, targeting both pokémon. As soon as the duo leapt to get away from the attack Ash noted Raticate was slower than Primeape, so he started formulating his plan.

"Bulbasaur, Razor Leaf once again." The scene repeated, however Ash had something in store.

"Meowth, use Fury Swipes on Raticate." The feline quickly repaid the attack from earlier, striking with real fury, soon enough Raticate had swirls in his eyes.

"You'll pay for this." Butch said

"Primeape, ready a Focus Punch." The primate started then to flow with red energy.

" _Bulbasaur's Razor Leaf can't hit from that far, and Meowth only has physical moves if this hits it's a sure OHKO…"_

Then an idea came to Ash's mind.

" _This is probably my most reckless idea ever … let's do this."_ Ash thought grinning.

He then muttered something to his Pokémon.

Butch saw Ash talking with his Pokémon and decided to jab at him.

"Discussing surrender plans?"

"My dear Biff…"

"IT'S BUTCH DAMNIT." The rocket soldier yelled

"… I'm sorry to upset you… but I'm much more a Clippers fan than a Rockets fan." (AN _: yep, a Basketball pun_ )

"Meowth, Bulbasaur, use Cat-tapult."

Meowth then leapt at Bulbasaur bulb, before being grabbed by its vines. The Bulbasaur quickly spun Meowth around to build momentum, before throwing the cat pokémon towards Primeape with great speed.

Using the momentum to its favor, Meowth grinned; unleashing a fiery Fury Swipes strike at a helpless Primeape.

"Crap, looks like we're outmatched." Cassidy said

"There's only one thing we can do…" Butch concluded

"RETREAT!" the duo quickly said, getting at the truck before speeding off at the speed of light and leaving all of the cages behind.

Ash then looked at the very tired figures of Meowth and Bulbasaur.

"Great job Meowth, you're getting stronger each day." Ash said, before patting the cat pokémon at the head, earning a purr, before recalling it to his pokéball.

He then turned to Bulbasaur.

"Great job Bulbasaur, now can you give me my Poké ball back?"

The quadrupled just grinned, setting the ball at the ground, before touching it with his paw.

One shake

Two shakes

Three shakes

PING!

Capture successful.

Ash looked at Melanie with a confused expression.

"Bulbasaur saw you as someone worthy journeying with, besides that he was making the village so safe that the pokémon in here didn't bothered to grow stronger." The blue haired girl explained.

Ash then picked up the ball from the ground.

"Thanks for choosing me, Bulbasaur, I won't let you down."

Ash then looked at Melanie.

"It was a pleasure meeting you."

Melanie said nothing, pulling Ash for a heated kiss, unlike earlier when Giselle kissed him, that time around there was tongue.

"It was pleasure meeting you too." She said with a blush

Ash stood motionless.

" _Second day as a pokémon and I've already been kissed by two pretty girls."_

He then grinned

" _Being a Pokémon Trainer is amazing."_

* * *

Ash ended up staying for the night, as it was already pretty late when he finished the battle. He parted ways with Melanie, who once again kissed him, before leaving to Cerulean.

After two hour of walking through the Route 5, Ash finally spotted Cerulean City. Despite being one of the biggest cities in the Kanto region, Cerulean was so well ornate and decorated that it looked much more like a tourist destination rather than an important city. The well organized and paved streets gave an air of calmness, that wasn't present in Vermilion due to its explosive, unplanned growth, pivoted by the installation of Vermilion Harbor. Ash quickly recognized Cerulean River, arguably the most important river in the region. The river's source was the famous Mt. Moon, a famous mountain that only lost to the famed Mt. Silver as Kanto's biggest mountain. It ran through Cerulean, ending up at the Lighthouse at Route 25. The water area between the Lighthouse and the harbor became known as Cerulean Cape. The harbor itself was the second bigger in Kanto, only losing to Vermilion's harbor. While Vermilion's harbor handled a great volume of merchandise and products came from regions like Hoenn, Kalos and Unova, the harbor in Cerulean was the prime gateway to Sinnoh and was much more known for receiving people instead of products. Another interesting fact regarding Cerulean was the presence of the nearby Cerulean Cave, known for the unusual presence of extremely stronger Pokémon, and thus requiring the highest level of clearance for visitation in the region of Kanto (Mt. Silver didn't count because it is geographically located in Johto). Ash was brought out by his analysis when he saw a multitude of people in front of the Gym.

" _Are all those challengers?"_ he thought frowning

He then approached a youngster who was eagerly waiting into the line.

"Hey, this is a line to challenge the gym?"

"To the gym yes, but not to challenge it. We're here for the sensational sister marine show."

"Sensational Sisters?"

"Are you dumb, how come you never heard of the face and pride of the Cerulean?" the youngster asked in a scolding tone.

"I'm not from here…"

"Oh, I see." The boy then took a flyer from his pocket, showing it to Ash.

The flyer featured three very beautiful women, whose ages appeared to range from 16 to 20, posing in a group photo. The first one, from left to the right, has blonde hair long hair, with a pale pink flower acting as a decoration, and green eyes, wearing a red one piece swimsuit, the middle one has long indigo hair, a bit darker than Melanie for instance, brown eyes and spotted a green swimsuit, finally the last one has long pink hair, blue eyes and spotted a yellow swimsuit. Bellow the three it read "The Amazing Waterflowers of Cerulean City".

"From left to the right Daisy, Violet and Lily, they are the city gym leaders and performers."

"Oh, I see…"

"I don't think they'll be able to accept your challenge today, will you stay for watch the show?"

Ash looked in deep thought for a moment, the boy was right, his battle would have to wait until tomorrow. He could do some extra training, he remembered seeing a flyer at the Pokémon Center about a tournament of sorts taking place at Route 25, but he could enjoy a day off, seeing three beauties in bikinis… if he was lucky there was a chance of a nipple slip to happen… Ash gritted his teeth.

" _Success first, girls later…"_ he decided as he took the road to Route 25.

* * *

On his way to the tournament, Ash had to go through Route 24, where a golden bridge, known as the Nugget Bridge, crossed the Cerulean River. As he was in a hurry he didn't stopped to note the facers of the people standing at the bridge. However there was a thing that caught his attention, a Charmander, curled into a rock, attentively looking at the horizon, as if waiting for someone.

" _He's waiting for its trainer?"_

Charmander is a bipedal, reptilian Pokémon with a primarily orange body. Its underside from the chest down and soles are cream-colored. It has two small fangs visible in its upper jaw and two smaller fangs in its lower jaw. Charmander has blue eyes. Its arms and legs are short with four fingers and three clawed toes. A fire burns at the tip of this Pokémon's slender tail and has blazed there since Charmander's birth.

Ash then knelt to face the Pokémon, who looked wary, but didn't moved.

"Waiting for someone?" he asked, getting a nod from the pokémon.

He then took a Oran Berry from his bag, and gave it to Charmander.

"They say time passes by faster if you're eating." He said in a friendly tone. "Speaking of time… it seems as I'm running late, so excuse me." The trainer concluded, leaving the lizard pokémon with the berry atop the rock.

* * *

Ash was barely able to reach the tournament site, but still managed to claim the last spot in the tournament. The format was single, one-on-one battles.

Ash decided to give his Meowth a little bit more of experience as he already planned on giving it a rest on the gym battle. Since Cerulean was his first shot at a real gym battle he decided to challenge the gym using his Pichu, Squirtle and Bulbasaur. He guessed that the gym used three on three battles as there were three sisters. Pichu and Bulbasaur were chosen due to their type advantage, while Squirtle even while not being able to do damage with his water attacks, could easily punish the opponent with his Bite and had coverage against water attacks.

In the Last of 32 round, he easily got past a schoolboy's Oddish due using Meowth's Technician boosted Fury Swipes.

In the Last of 16 he defeated yet another schoolboy, who possessed an Eevee using a lethal combination of Bite and Fury Swipes.

In the Quarter Finals his Meowth finally received damage as he clashed against a Lass's Gloom. But in the end he once again managed to emerge victorious.

The semifinal saw Ash facing a male camper, who used a Nidoran Male. Despite the foe's Poison Point ability and it's supper effective Double Kick move, Meowth managed to defeat him using Screech to lower its defenses enough before sweeping him with his Bite.

In the final Meowth and Ash face a Schoolboy and his Pidgeotto. Despite having a slight speed advantage, Meowth was overwhelmed by the avian Pokémon use of Double Team and Gust. When everything seemed lost, Meowth learned a new move: Faint Attack, and used it to bypass the double team and claim the win.

After getting the prize, a Nugget, and a small symbolical medal, Ash was about to make his way back to Cerulean when a male voice called his name. The trainer turned around to face boy, slightly older than him, with wavy brown hair and black eyes, he wears a purple shirt and brown pants.

"Hello, I'd like to congratulate you on your performance on the tournament."

"Thanks."

"The Meowth you used is a very interesting pokémon and I dare say it's among the strongest in his species. So I'd like to study him."

"I see… sorry but no, I have no time." Ash said warily, after running with Team Lakers or something like that in the Pokémon Village he became a bit suspicious of people.

"You don't trust me right?" the researcher called

"It's not personal, but I don't trust people unless they give me a good reason to do so."

"My name is Bill, I developed the Pokémon Storage System." He said offering his hand

"Ash Ketchum, from Vermilion City." The trainer said shacking Bill's hand

"What if I make a deal with you?"

"What kind of deal?"

"If you let me research your pokémon I'll give you their advanced status, abilities and characteristics besides a TM Case."

This caught Ash's interest, he had no Pokédex and wasn't able to access the PSS (Pokémon Storage System), so learning about his pokémon abilities and those stuff would be of a great help. The TM Case would sweeten the deal even more.

"I accept only if my pokémon agree and if I get to watch."

"It's a deal then."

Bill then guided Ash to his house, known as the Sea Cottage. As Bill researched Ash's Pokémon, giving special attention to Meowth and Pichu the trainer saw the imposing Cape Lighthouse. He then looked at a poster Bill had glued into the wall.

"Are you a member of PfP (Pokémon for People)?" Ash asked

"Yes, I'm their vice president." Bill explained "What do you think of our cause?"

The Pokémon for People organization was born after the league and the PPA (Pokémon Protection Agency) decided to limit, and by some degree elitize the access of pokémon. They greatly opposed to that, wanting to have pokémon being freely given to the people.

"Whilst it would be much easier to me if pokémon were more accessible, I understand some of the league points… some people are very immature, even with the age requirement increase."

"Don't tell me about that, when you're coming here you happened to see a Charmander atop a rock?"

"Yes."

"He was released by his trainer, but it refuses to leave the rock because he believes his trainer will come back for him."

"I see…" Ash said calmly, but inward he was angry, like Squirtle and Bulbasaur, Charmander was released by a trainer, and people who merely treated Pokémon like possessions were the worst of the scum, even worse than Team…Spurs?...Mavericks?... no Rocket.

" _I still get their name wrong."_ He inwardly thought

"Even though there are unworthy trainers here and there, I trust the power of the bond between people and pokémon, it's unfair to prevent the majority of the population from having the wonderful experience of having a pokémon just because of some few assholes." Bill explained

"I agree, hopefully your organization can find a good solution for this problem." Ash said

"I've finished the checkup, but it will still take some time for the results to be ready. If you want to I can get your phone number so I can text you with the results." Bill said

"It would be great." Ash said

"Also there's another matter of interest. It came to my attention that you don't have a Pokédex, so you're unable to access the PSS, making you stuck with the max of six pokémon, not even being able to capture more right?"

"Yes."

"I can offer to store some of your caught pokémon at this cottage, I won't demand any fee at all, there will be a limit of the number of the pokémon you can store here of course but it's still better than nothing."

Ash was very surprised.

"Why?" was his only question

"Because if you're successful the PfP would have their interest defended. Come to think of it, if you, a kid who has nothing at all, and became a trainer just with sheer willpower and guts, win or get some recognition at the league we will have some good leverage about unrestricting the use of Pokémon against the PPA."

"I accept, our shared interests tie us together." Ash said solemnly.

"Great!" Bill said, handling Ash a spherical device. "This is a one way transporter, pre-programmed to transport Pokémon to the Sea Cottage, just put the recently captured pokémon pokéball in here and I'll receive and store it almost immediately."

"And how I call back the pokémon I sent to you?"

"You'll need to go to the Pokémon Center and contact me, I'm working in a two way transporter but it's still in early developmental stages."

"No problem, thanks for the help Bill."

"I'm the one who should've been thanking you for the opportunity to study such amazing pokémon, by the way don't forget this." Bill said handling Ash a TM Case.

"You know how TM'S work right?"

"Yes, reproduce the on the device to a pokémon who can learn the selected move, they can be used freely too right?"

"Yes, in the past they were one use only but nowadays they're made by much more resilient material, allowing multiple uses."

"Once again, thanks for everything, Bill."

"Win the league and I'll be the one thanking you."

* * *

After talking with Bill, Ash opted for returning to the Pokémon Center in Cerulean City, it was already night and he hoped to get a good night of sleep to finally challenge the sensational sisters tomorrow. As he was checking in at the Center, he heard a smug, boisterous voice.

"I'm telling you he was so weak that it couldn't even damage a Bellsprout."

Some of the attendants chuckled. "And what you did with it Damian?"

"I released it of course, my team is no place for weak pokémon. But it is so stupid that he believes I'm still coming back to him, like I'd waste my time with trash like him."

Ash connected the dots, this Damian guy was the trainer of the Charmander he saw at Route 24, to see him referring to Charmander like that, made his blood boil, and he acted purely on instinct.

"HEY ASSHOLE." He said, causing Damian to turn to him

"What do you…" he said only to be interrupted by a strong punch from Ash connecting straight to his face.

"Pokémon aren't possessions, they're our friends, having someone like you as a trainer is the worst fate a pokémon can have."

Ash then once again charged towards Damian, only to be stopped by an Officer Jenny, who grabbed him from behind.

"THAT'S ENOUGH, YOU'RE UNDER ARREST."

* * *

Unlike some people who would feel shame on being arrested, Ash didn't flinch or faltered. When he was conducted to the police car, he held his head up unlike several other people who would bow in shame. In his mugshot he glared at the camera, as if defying it. He then was thrown at a jail alongside his Pichu, who refused to leave his side. Unlike Vermilion, Cerulean had a low crime rate, so the jail only had the arrested trainer and his faithful companion as occupants.

Ash had no idea of how much time he stayed there, in some point he glanced up to see the approaching figure of Officer Jenny.

"The offended party decided not to press charges against you, consider yourself lucky."

"…"

"Nothing to say?"

"… at least I broke his nose?" Ash asked, causing Jenny to chuckle

"Yes, I must admit that you have one hell of a right hook for a twelve year old, but answer me, it was worth it?"

"I caused him pain, so partially yes, but it still doesn't compare to what Charmander felt, so I still wish I had dealt more damage."

"I'm a police officer and I'm disgusted by the treatment this guy gives to his pokémon, yet I can't do anything."

"…"

"… I assume you want to be alone, so I must go then."

After some more time Jenny once again approached the cell, opening it's doors.

"Someone bailed you out, this time you got out with just a complaint and a warning, but if this proves to be a constant event your license can be suspended or even revoked."

"Okay."

Ash quickly got his possessions back before heading out, coming face to face with Bill.

"You bailed me out?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because you did what everyone else wanted to do for a long time."

"I should've kicked his nuts…" Ash said, earning some chuckles from Bill.

The conversation then was interrupted by a loud thunder.

"It looks like it'll rain soon."

As soon as Bill said that, Ash stormed off, with only one thought in his head.

" _Must check on Charmander…"_

* * *

When Ash got to the rock it was already raining. Charmander still faithfully clung to the rock although he was curling in a ball form, shivering, and the flare on his tail on the verge of extinguishing. Ash wasn't a pokémon researcher but he knew that if the flare extinguished, Charmander would die. He quickly took off his bomber jacket, enveloping Charmander, before guiding it to the closest indoor location that he could think off, the Lighthouse.

Ash kept in standing vigil for the entire night, there were some times that Charmander's tail flame almost extinguished, but in the end the lizard pokémon survived. Bill passed by the next morning and took care of Charmander alongside Ash, the pokémon had a severe case of malnourishment and a nasty flu, courtesy of the storm from last night.

For the next week, Ash set aside his training alongside his pokémon to take care of Charmander full time. When Bill finally deemed the pokémon as healthy, Ash took out both his Bulbasaur and Squirtle out of their pokéballs. Seeing Charmander puzzled expression, Ash sat down, looking directly at his eyes.

"Both Bulbasaur and Squirtle were abandoned by his trainers." Ash said as his two pokémon nodded

"In some ways they're like you, so I'm officially offering you a place as one of my Pokémon. Life won't be easy, but I promise to help you accomplish any objective you may have. I'll be blunt with you, Damian will never come back, and despite what you think, this is a good thing, you were one of the most loyal pokémon I've ever seen, but to a unworthy trainer. Loyalty is one of the most important qualities in relationships, between people, pokémon and people and pokémon, but it's useless if it's one sided, trust and loyalty are both two way roads, you're free to make your choice, but if you choose to come with me, to be loyal to me, to trust me, I'll do the same."

"So, what do you say?" Ash said extending a Poké Ball to Charmander.

The lizard-like pokémon just nodded, before touching the pokéball.

One shake

Two shakes

Three shakes

PING!

Capture successful.

"Thanks for trusting me Charmander, I promise to be the best I can be for you." Ash said, taking the pokéball and touching his heart with it.

* * *

Ash was heading back to Cerulean, with the challenge to the gym in his mind. He already decided to settle with using Bulbasaur, Squirtle and Pichu, but his team as a whole was shaping greatly. Charmander's addition created what Ash decided to call 'The Trident', the combination of Kanto's grass, fire and water starters, providing Ash with lots of coverage when facing different opponents.

He was crossing the Nugget Bridge, when he snarled, seeing the figure of Damian, glaring at him.

Damian has wavy blue hair, pink shirt, covered by a cowboy like vest and a pair of blue sunglasses on his forehead. He also had a band aid on his nose, courtesy of Ash's right hook last week.

"What do you want?" Ash demanded

"MY Charmander back." He replied in an equally aggressive tone

"Like I said before, pokémon aren't possessions, pokémon are partners. You broke your partner's trust when you released him. He's no longer your Charmander, he's Charmander, my partner and friend."

"GIVE ME MY CHARMANDER BACK."

"Pathetic." Ash said as he saw Damian throwing a childlike tantrum, ignoring him and proceeding to cross the bridge.

"DON'T YOU DARE IGNORE ME." Damian yelled throwing a punch at Ash's face.

Years of living in one of Kanto's most dangerous neighborhoods paid off as Ash easily dodged the punch, counterattacking Damian with a left uppercut, that sent him flying backwards.

As Ash once again attempted to cross the bridge, he heard his enemy again.

"Don't dare turn your back on me, Poliwag crush him." He said calling out the tadpole pokémon

"I'm not going to waste my time with the likes of…" Ash said only to be interrupted by Charmander coming out of his pokéball.

The lizard like pokémon had an angry expression as he glared at Damian.

"Are you sure of this Charmander?" Ash asked, getting a nod from the pokémon.

"The traitor showed up." Damian said mockingly.

"Poliwag, kill him."

The tadpole like pokémon then unleashed a flurry of water attacks at Charmander, who impassively glared at Damian.

"Charmander, dodge." Ash said as his pokémon dodged the first wave of attacks

"Don't stand back Poliwag, unleash another barrage."

As Ash was about to command Charmander once again he noticed a purple like energy forming at the Lizard pokémon's mouth.

"New attack?" Ash inquired as the Lizard pokémon nodded. "Then show me."

Charmander then unleashed the energy in a stream, instantly knocking out Poliwag who was hit dead center by the attack.

" _That's a Dragon Rage attack."_ Ash noted

Damian then took five Pokéballs at once.

Predicting what Damian was about to do Ash quickly called Pichu, who stood atop his shoulder alongside Bulbasaur and Squirtle.

"Pichu, use Thundershock."

"Charmander, Dragon Rage."

"Squirtle, use Water Gun."

"Bulbasaur, use Razor Leaf."

The combination attacks sent Damian flying far away. Then a strong rain started to fall, startling Ash.

" _It was sunny until like a minute ago."_

He then glanced to the clouded sky, and saw a sight he would never forget. A dragon-like pokémon, with silver and white plumes, and blue belly. If Ash had to describe it in one world it would be 'majestic'. The young trainer then heard a voice from inside his head.

" _Impressive, Chosen One."_

The storm then suddenly stopped once again, leaving place for the bright sunlight. Ash was still trying to get around the fact that a Pokémon just spoke with him, when he saw a silver wing, belonging to the flying figure, landing at his hand. He then glanced at the wing, remembering the previous events.

Just similarly to when he caught Charmander he took the wing, placing it close to his heart.

" _I'll treasure this, forever."_

* * *

After recovering his pokémon at the pokémon center, Ash was finally ready for his battle. He asked Pichu to stay in his pokéball for a while, as he felt like it could help him to surprise the leaders.

The gym building resembled a carousel of sorts with round roof and stripped tiles. Inside the gym, Ash was greeted by a large aquarium, with several native water types from Kanto, such as Shellder, Goldeen, Magikarp. He then entered the central area, where he saw the gym's battlefield.

The battlefield consisted of a large pool with two opposing platforms and a referee pod at the side.

"Hello there cutie, here to see the Sensational Sisters show?" a girl's voice asked in a seductive tone

Ash turned to see the gym leaders: Daisy, who spoke with him previously, Lily and Violet, wearing sundresses.

The raven haired trainer had to admit the flyer did the sisters no justice, to be honest with himself he actually was worried about how he would be able to battle the sisters if he kept having perverted thoughts of them. He quickly recomposed himself.

"I'd like to ask for a gym battle." He said in a serious tone.

The sisters sighed, then Lily spoke.

"Okay, which one of us do you want to face? I'm assuming you'll chose the prettier girl, in other words, me." She said with a wink

" _I've already kissed two girls, there's no need to fear, just chose any of them and get this show on the road."_

However when Ash looked at the girls, he felt something taking over him.

"If I'm to choose the prettiest girl… I choose… the three of you."

The girls giggled and blushed a bit, Lily was the first one to recompose herself and thus addressed Ash.

"Three on three battle, each one of us will command one pokémon, sounds right to you?"

"Yes."

Soon the group took their respective places, with Ash facing Daisy first and Violet acting as a referee.

"This will be an official gym battle between Ash Ketchum of Vermilion City and The Sensational Sisters of Cerulean Gym. The chosen format is three-on-three, only the challenger is allowed to switch Pokémon, that being said, let the battle begin, trainers send out your first Pokémon."

"Go Squirtle." Ash commanded

"Goldeen, be ready to battle." Daisy said

Goldeen is a white, fish-like Pokémon with orange markings on its tail, back, and fins. On its forehead is a large horn.

Soon both Pokémon dived underwater.

" _Goldeen has a slight advantage here because he's already used to fighting in this environment, but I still believe Squirtle is faster."_

"Goldeen, Horn Attack."

"Squirtle, repel it with rapid spin."

Squirtle did as asked, but due to the water resistance he couldn't build enough momentum to properly perform the move, thus being hit by Goldeen's horn and sent crashing against the wall.

"Squirtle, are you okay?" Ash asked concerned

"Squir…" the pokémon nodded, wincing a bit

" _Using rapid spin wasn't really my best idea, Goldeen may be slower, but anatomically speaking he's better designed to fight underwater… so I change of scenery is in order."_

"Squirtle get into the platform and tuck your head in."

The turtle pokémon quickly leapt, before tucking his head at the shell.

"Goldeen, once again hit him with Horn Attack."

The fish pokémon quickly built his speed underwater before leaping toward the platform, where Squirtle was standing still.

"Squirtle, Skull Bash now, target Goldeen's body and avoid the horn at all costs."

Squirtle then started to glow white due to the accumulated energy, and went in encounter of Goldeen. As the horn neared Squirtle, the amphibious pokémon did a slide to get past it, before connecting a clear Skull Bash to Goldeen's underbelly. The impact was enormous, sending the fish pokémon outside of the pool, with swirls on his eyes.

"Goldeen is unable to battle, the winner of this round is Ash Ketchum from Vermilion City."

"Good job Squirtle, you made us all proud." Ash complimented, recalling his pokémon while Daisy did the same before turning to Ash.

"Attractive, charming and a great trainer, looks like we got the full package." Daisy said with a flirtatious smile, causing Ash to blush.

Soon enough Violet took her place at the leader's pod, with Lily taking up the referee role.

"The same rules from the previous battle apply here, trainers send out your pokémon."

"Bulbasaur, I need your help."

"Go, Seel."

Seel is a seal like pokémon with white fur. The small horn above his forehead and his two tusks were his trademark features.

Seel leapt underwater, while Bulbasaur stood at the platform.

"Bulbasaur let's grab the bull by its horns, well not the bull but the seal, you get what I mean." Ash said causing everyone present to sweatdrop.

Bulbasaur then used his Vine Whip to grab Seel from underwater, restraining him at ground level.

"Great, let's finish with Razor…" Ash said before taking notice of Violet's actions. The Cerulean leader decided to take off her sundress, thus spotting a very small green two piece bikini. "… boobs." Ash said incoherently, causing Bulbasaur to turn to look him, giving Violet and Seel the opening they needed.

"Seel, use Ice Shard."

The attack impacted at Bulbasaur, causing great damage. Ash quickly recomposed himself, realizing what happened, while Bulbasaur grunted in pain.

"That was a very dirty trick." Ash said sternly

"A trainer must use all her assets to win, besides it's really hot today." Violet replied with a wink

Ash took a deep breath.

"I agree wholeheartedly. In fact I think I'll follow your example." Ash said, lazily taking off his jacket and his t-shirt, showing his muscled upper body to the sisters.

He shrugged the lustful looks off, instead turning to Bulbasaur.

"Please use Razor Leaf at Seel."

The grass type nodded, unleashing a torrent of edged leaves. While a fairly potent attack, it was avoidable, keyword was, because Violet was still drooling at Ash's body and only saw the attack when it landed at Seel, knocking him out instantly.

"Winner is Ash Ketchum of Six Pack City, I mean Vermilion City" Lily said.

Violet absently minded recalled Seel, still without taking her eyes of Ash's torso.

Ash amusedly signaled to Violet to clean the drool at the corner of her mouth, which the girl did blushing a deeper shade of red.

The trainer then put back his t-shirt, earning disapproving moans from the girls.

" _It was nice winning like this, but I feel like a gigolo."_ Ash reasoned to himself

The sisters quickly recomposed themselves, with Lily taking her spot and Daisy acting as a referee.

"Trainers, send out your pokémon."

"Go, Gyarados."

Gyarados is a dragon-like Pokémon. It is mostly blue, with a yellow underbelly and yellow spots along its body.

Ash took a deep breath, everything came up to this…

"Go, Pichu." Ash said, throwing the pokéball and revealing the rodent pokémon.

…

…

…

…

"OH MY GOD…" Daisy said

"… HE IS…" Violet continued

"… SO CUTE." Lily completed squealing

Soon enough the girls rounded Pichu, hugging him fiercely, causing Ash and Gyarados to sweatdrop.

Pichu was beyond pissed, he even tried to ask for Gyarados to control her trainer, only being greeted by a laughter from the atrocious pokémon. Pichu in his own mind wasn't cute, he is a strong pokémon, a killer in the good meaning, if there's one, of the word. He hated having to use the Sweet Kiss, in fact he decided to demand extra ketchup compensation to Ash everytime he had to go through this humiliation. But being hugged to death by some girls was outrageous, he was not teddy bear, he's a cold blooded warrior, one of the likes to be feared, not hugged to death. The anger turned into white energy, and soon he started to change forms.

His body grew a lot, the once thin rodent became burly, even chubby if you will. The once pale pink cheeks grew and changed to red. The once prototype tail became a fully developed one. The small triangle like ears, became pointed, stick-like, ones. The gold fur changed to a more orange like color. Pichu had just evolved

Ash was speechless at first, but quickly regained his composure.

"I guess Pichu, didn't appreciated being hugged to death by you three." Ash said, turning to the Sensational Sisters

"Although I'd kill to be in his place." Ash flirtatiously added, causing the girls to blush crimson red.

"How you feel, Pikachu?" Ash said, with emphasis on the rodent new name.

Pikachu looked at his own body, before letting out an enthusiastic cry, which would roughly be translated as 'I'm ready to kick some ass.'

"Then let's get this show on the road." Ash said grinning.

Soon the trainers took their places, with Gyarados swimming underwater and Pikachu standing at the platform.

" _Pikachu has a dual type advantage here…one good hit and it's over…"_

"Gyarados, use Hyper Beam." Lily ordered.

The atrocious Pokémon then leapt from underwater, opening his jaw, revealing an orange stream of energy, targeting Pikachu from the above.

"Pikachu, use Double Team to avoid it."

The rodent followed Ash's command to perfection, swiftly dodging a certain defeat should the attack hit. As Gyarados was left panting, unable to move due to Hyper Beam's side effect, Ash knew the battle was about to end.

"Pikachu jump at Gyarados head."

As soon as the rodent climbed atop the dragon-like pokémon head, Ash grinned.

"It's over, Pikachu, use Thundershock."

The four times super effective attack connected from point blank range, fainting the atrocious pokémon instantly.

"Gyarados is unable to battle, the winner is Ash Ketchum of Vermilion City." Daisy said.

As Lily recalled the Gyarados, she signaled for a Seel to come forward. The seal pokémon then opened his mouth, revealing a cerulean blue raindrop-like badge.

"As Gym Leader of Cerulean I hereby concede you the Cascade Badge." Lily said, handling the badge to Ash

"Take this as a personal gift from us." Daisy then stepped forward, handling a cerulean blue badge case

"Wow, thanks."

Violet then stepped forward.

"Since you defeated the three of us a special reward is in order." She said with a mischievous grin.

"Special reward?"

"Yes, a date with the three of us." Daisy said enthusiastically.

" _God bless Cerulean City."_ Ash thought, containing a blush.

* * *

The group then opted for a get out to the movies, while Ash wasn't actually happy in seeing a movie about vampires that shined near the sun he at least dodged a bullet as the girls wanted to go shopping instead.

Ash and the sisters opted for seats in one of the last rows in the movie theater. Daisy and Lily flanked Ash by his right and left respectively, while Violet sat beside Lily. The movie was boring as hell, and Ash was trying his best to not fall asleep.

Then Daisy decided to start kissing him, their tongues battled for dominance with Ash winning the right to explore the blonde Sensational Sister mouth. As soon as they pulled out to catch some breath, Ash turned to see Lily already moving to claim his mouth in a lustful kiss. Unable to rest, Ash kissed the pink haired sister, while occasionally toying with Daisy's hair caressing her. Then Violet somehow appeared from behind the trio, kissing Ash.

"Shall we take this to the next level?" she asked in a seductive tone

Ash just nodded, followed by the other two sisters, leaving the cinema in a hurry. While the group made their way to the Cerulean Gym, Ash's mind was racing.

" _It's really happening, today's the best day of my life."_

As soon as the group arrived at the front of the gym, the girls noticed a very angry figure standing at the door.

"OH SHIT…"

"…IT'S…"

"…MISTY." The sister said in unison.

The newly identified Misty was a different kind of beauty when compared to the other gym leaders by Ash's eyes. She was tomboyish and didn't seem the type of girl to spend hours fixing her hair. Still, she was as pretty as any of her sisters, as Ash presumed by the facial features and skin color.

Misty has orange hair, tied in a one-sided bun by a blue band, unlike her sister's her hair was wild, untamed. Ash then noticed her viridian green eyes, that paired well with her auburn hair.

Finally taking notice of her clothes, Ash saw the clear difference in styles. While her sisters usually wore sundresses, Misty opted for a pale sleeveless yellow top and jeans short. She also wears red suspenders.

"Hey Misty…" Daisy said carefully.

"Don't hey me." Misty yelled.

"You weren't there to receive the challengers, besides closing the gym for days in order to do your stupid marine shows. Finally you go lose to an inexperienced trainer with weak pokémon just because you were looking at his body."

"Hey." Ash said sternly. "You can talk about me as long as you like, but don't get my pokémon involved."

"You're still a weak trainer, if you were battling against me you would lose easily."

"Is this a challenge?"

"And what if it is?" Misty replied, glaring at Ash

"Then I accept, when I have time I'll be sure to show who's inexperienced." Ash replied

"Why not now?"

"Because I need to go to Pewter City to meet a friend, but I don't flee from my battles, Lily has my number, so call me in a week so we can arrange a battle."

Misty seemed in deep thought, before nodding.

She then turned to her sisters.

"Now, we need to have a very serious talk." Misty said, flinching the girls, who rushed inside the house.

"Keep your promise." She said before entering the house/gym too, leaving Ash alone alongside Pikachu.

"Pikachu, did I just got cockblocked?" Ash asked incredulously

* * *

Phew, my longest chapter so far. I've carefully studied where this story was going and decided to add Dawn as one of Ash's pairings, so expect to see some Pearlshipping in Sinnoh. That being said, I'll use the Q&A segment to answer some of the posed questions and discuss some of the pokémon suggestions. In the next chapter I'll use the same segment to give my thoughts on some of the pairings proposals. Also, I hope I didn't went overboard with the NBA references, it's just that I'm a big fan and I thought that it would be funny if Ash kept forgetting Team Rocket name as people often forget Butch's in the anime.

* * *

Q: Cada cuanto tiempo vas a ir actualizando? (How long the updates will take?)

A: It's a bit irregular right now, I have another ongoing work here, besides some stuff happening at my personal life. While I can't disclose how long it'll usually take to constantly update the story, I believe next chapter will be up in two to three weeks.

Q: Very nice choices for pairings, though I'm surprised that Leaf isn't on the list. But I'm guessing you'll have more of a big sister role or something right?

A: Thanks for the compliment. While Leaf will be one of Ash's closest friends, I don't envision her as a big sister of sorts. Ash is kind of the lone wolf, next chapter when Brock will be introduced you'll see what I mean. Leaf will just be a friend and a way to keep Serena informed of Ash's accomplishments, although she'll appear next chapter once again.

Q: Can Ash wear all black and wear a fedora?

A: In some points he'll use an all-black look, while the fedora will be part of his regular outfit in Sinnoh. For this particular moment I decided to give Ash a more 'just got out of the army' look.

Q: Male or Female Meowth?

A: Male, next chapter I'll write a summary of Ash's current pokémon, including gender.

Q: This story is awesome I'm really enjoying it, keep up the good work and keep doing your best as for my question: will the amount of girls ash will end up with stay with 3 or is there a possibility of a 4th girl that will possibly join.

A: There's a chance of having four, or even five girls, although the latter is highly unlikely. Like I said previously I don't see this as a harem fic, so I'm trying to keep things real. The possibility of having a fourth or fifth girl join will mostly depend on popular acclamation, so I can't say I have this one figured out yet.

* * *

Now, for some pokémon suggestions:

Mewtwo : Ash will befriend Mewtwo, but won't necessarily capture him, if the Sinnoh Arc comes out as I originally planned, there will be a Mewtwo x Darkrai fight. As I plan on adapting the M01, Mewtwo will appear somewhat soon.

Lucario: Ash will befriend Sir Aaron's Lucario at the Three of Beginning, and in the future will get his own Lucario. Since Ash will have Aura it's an obvious choice.

Manaphy (for May): It can happens, but it's still very soon to guarantee it.

Shaymyn (for Dawn): It's still early to say, but it pairs well with her, so it can happen

Pyroar : A big if, I like Pyroar, but I'm not sure if Ash will even go to Kalos.

Greninja: The same as above although I'm really considering him.

Tyranitar: Will happen, in the final part of Johto, Ash will get a Larvitar and will use him in Hoenn.

Houndoom: I like Houndoom, but it's unlikely as the Johto fire slot will most likely be filled by Typhlosion.

Magmar : Unlikely as Ash will already have a fire powerhouse in the form of Charizard at his Kanto team.

Electabuzz : This is a big yes, despite using multiple pokémon types, Ash will have a special liking to electric types, so he'll use plenty of them.

Alakazam : I'm not sure, Ash in fact needs a psychic type, but I don't want to overstuff him with pokémon, besides he can cover this type gap with other pokémon.

Scyther : I love Scyther and Scizor, so I'm regarding this with great enthusiasm, while I can't guarantee, I can say it's likely.

Primeape: I think I'll keep things as in canon, not sure though.

* * *

That concludes the Q&A next chapter I'll give my opinion on some of the pairings, besides answering questions posed in this chapter, so please review.

The next chapter is called 'To each Bro his Wingman' and will see Ash meeting with Brock, the Pewter Gym and his new objective in life.

I'll now work on my Naruto fanfiction, so the update will mostly likely be slower than this one.

As I said above, please leave a review, it means a lot to me.


	5. To each Bro, his Wingman

Another week, another chapter of Zero to Hero, for you. Check the end of the update for the Author Notes.

* * *

After the meeting with the Sensational Sisters, Ash decided to rest at Bill's house before going to Pewter. As soon as he got at the cottage, he was greeted by an enthusiastic Bill.

"Just the guy I was looking for." Bill said

"I'm here." Ash said, raising an eyebrow.

"I finished the studies of your Pokémon." Bill, said getting Ash's attention

"And?"

"And I concluded that you have a group of Pokémon with great potential."

"Great."

"I can give you the individual reports, if you want too."

"It would be great."

"Who I start with?"

"Pikachu here?" Ash said, pointing to his newly evolved rodent

"So he finally evolved right?"

"Finally?"

"Pichu evolve by having a great value of happiness and a sufficiently strong bond with its trainer, it was bound to happen somehow."

"And you didn't warned me?"

"I thought it would be a nice surprise."

"I must admit, it was."

"Now for the report:" Bill said, before taking a file from a folder.

"Pikachu, as you know is a male specimen. He has above average attack and special attack stats, making him a potential mixed attacker. He has elite tier speed as a way to compensate his lack of defenses, both physical and special, and HP. His ability is Static, which paralyses pokémon upon physical contact. Since he's your first pokémon I assume he's the one you familiarized the most, so most of those data probably were already known by you." He explained

"Indeed they were, although your data now is the validation I needed to institute a special training regimen for Pikachu." Ash replied

"May I ask what kind of regimen?"

"If I were to train Pikachu in its bulk to improve his defenses and endurance I'd be losing speed while not completely protecting him. Instead I'll be training Pikachu in speed, I plan on making him a gun and run type of pokémon."

"Gun and run?" Bill asked curiously

"Yes, use the speed to create openings and attack, but retreating before the opponent can respond."

"I must admit that this is a good way to use Pikachu strengths while minimizing his weaknesses." Bill noted

"Thanks, what about the rest of the data?"

"Well, which one do you want next?"

"Meowth."

"Meowth is male too. His greatest strengths lie in his attack and speed, making him a perfect option for a sweeper. His ability, Technician powers up weak moves, sometimes making them even stronger than the updated version of them. It provides him the all-around element as weaker moves usually have strongest added effects. Also there are some signs that he may be closer to evolving."

"Really?"

"Yes, but I'd thread carefully there, Meowth has yet to learn his signature move in Payday, so I'd advise you to hold back his evolution until he learn some more moves."

Ash knew pre-evolved forms of Pokémon tended to learn stronger moves earlier, as a way to balance the power, Surge's Raichu was a prime example, the former military used the Thunderstone way too soon, as he always prioritized power. However due to his Gym Leader status he was able to get through the lack of powerful moves by using TMs.

"The decision is not mine to make, its Meowth's." Ash said simply, he regarded his pokémon as partners, not tools, so he wouldn't force an evolution just to get the best of a pokémon.

Bill smiled at Ash's words, it seemed like he made a right choice helping him.

"Now, which report do you want next?"

"Squirtle's."

"He's male and his ability is Torrent, but Squirtle has the most interesting backstory. I realized there were some peculiarities in his DNA, so I called a friend in Kalos to check a theory."

"Kalos? That's like on the other side of the world."

"Yes, this is what makes things interesting, tell me Ash have you ever read about a pokémon called Clawitzer?"

"No."

"It's a native from the Kalos region." Bill said, handling Ash a picture.

Ash glanced at the image, it showed a light blue shrimp with a single black stripe on each of its body segments. The shrimp's right claw was much bigger than the left one and resembled a launcher of sorts.

"This is Clawitzer?"

"Yes, he's known for appearing in the Kalos Muraille Coast. A somewhat rare pokémon."

"I see, but why you're showing me this?"

"Because my studies have shown that Squirtle has dormant Clawitzer genes, what makes him an offspring of a male Clawitzer and a female Squirtle."

"So Squirtle is from Kalos?"

"It's a possibility, but we can't rule out the chance of having a Clawitzer in Kanto too. Have you ever heard of Pokémon Breeding?"

"I heard some of the concepts."

"There's a concept called move breeding, using your Pikachu as an example, if a female Pikachu mates with a male Clefairy, the offspring Pichu will learn a Fairy type move that otherwise would be unavailable."

"Cool, so you telling me that Squirtle can use some of Clawitzer's moves?"

"In theory yes."

"In theory?"

"As you know, pokémon research in France isn't as developed as in Japan, so there's not much data of Clawitzer's learnset."

"So you don't know if Squirtle will ever learn some of his moves, nor what those moves are." Ash concluded

"Yes, but I can assure you that Clawitzer is a pokémon high base special stats, so I'd suggest you to drill Squirtle in those moves."

"I see, I'll probably do so."

"Now for the rest of your pokémon data: Bulbasaur has good defensive and HP status, while his speed and attack are average. He's male and his ability is Overgrow."

"Good."

"Charmander is male and his ability is Blaze, his defenses are a bit above average, while he has excellent speed and attack stats. But what stands out the most is his elite tier Special Attack, I must admit it's the highest potential I've ever seen. Finally he also is showing to be in the earlier stages of the evolution process, so I'd suggest you to get him as much as battle experience possible."

"Thanks a lot Bill." Ash said sincerely

"Like I said some time ago, win the league and I'll be the one thanking you."

"Anyway, I must be going."

"Where do you plan to go?"

"Pewter City."

"You will take the Mt. Moon or the Diglett Cave?"

"I think I'll climb Mt. Moon."

"You have the gear?"

"Gear?"

"Ash, you're climbing a mountain, so I'd suggest you to buy some equipment, don't tell me you were planning to go up like that?" he asked, pointing at Ash's clothes.

"Of course not." Ash said rubbing the back of his head.

" _It seems like I have to do the thing I hate the most…shopping."_ Ash thought, shivering

* * *

As Ash finished the so feared act, buying a tent, a stuffed black coat to counter the cold weather, a canteen of water and some ropes in case of need, he was ready to cruise Route 4 and head to the Mt. Moon. However he first decided to use one of the PCs in the Pokémon Center to create his trainer page at the web. He was no big fan of social networks, but after a talk with Bill he decided to do take some time to create a page. It could be useful in the future.

Ash furrowed his brows as he filled in the information, there were some basic questions while some more complex.

" _Is this a trainer profile or a dating website?"_

After some minutes Ash finished filling in the information, he decided to not answer lots of personal questions, but nevertheless he was happy with the results.

" _It's done_ , _I'll check this once in a while."_ Ash thought as he turned the computer off and went towards Route 4 and the Mt. Moon

* * *

Meanwhile in Kalos a notification popped in at Serena's computer. After Leaf told her that both she and Ash started their journey, Serena saw this as an opportunity to support her crush at his dream. She quickly viewed Ash's website page and fought hard to contain her blush at how handsome Ash had become. His profile picture showed him in a crossed arms pose with the Vermilion Harbor as background. His hair was shorter, Serena loved Ash's raven colored bangs falling at his face and she preferred his hair a bit longer, but she wouldn't even dream of complaining. The biggest difference however was his body, Ash Ketchum was ripped, and since he spotted a sleeveless t-shirt Serena could clearly see his definition. Wiping the drool that formed in her mouth she then proceeded to read some of his information.

 _NAME: ASH KETCHUM_

 _AGE: 12_

 _HOMETOWN: VERMILION CITY_

 _OCCUPATION: TRAINER_

 _BADGES/RIBBONS: ONE (CASCADE BADGE)_

 _HOBBIES: TRAINING POKÉMON, SPORTS (BASKETBALL, SOCCER, BOXING)_

 _RELATIONSHIP STATUS: SINGLE_

 _FAVORITE COLOR: RED_

 _FAVORITE MUSICAL GENRE: RAP_

 _CURRENT LINEUP: PIKACHU, SQUIRTLE, MEOWTH, BULBASAUR, CHARMANDER_

 _RELATIVES: NONE_

Serena really wished Ash answered more questions as it would give her a better picture of what Ash liked, but she wouldn't complain about what she got. Serena could never imagine Ash was a fan of sports and liked rap for instance. However what caught her attention was the last line ' _RELATIVES: NONE',_ while living in Pallet she was sure she met Delia Ketchum, Ash's mother, so she had no idea why Ash didn't filled the relatives tab. However the most important of all was that he was single.

She quickly dismissed her thoughts of Delia as she noticed the '0 Followers' number, she decided to be Ash's first. Quickly turning red as she noticed how it sounded, she proceeded to create an account.

" _I can't just straight out put my name there, Ash will think I'm a crazy stalker. I need a codename."_

After some thinking, Ash, in the other half of the world got his first follower in the name of 'Beauty'.

* * *

Ash took a deep breath as he saw the imposing Mt. Moon, the highest mountain in the Kanto Region, and the third in the Kanto-Johto region, losing to Mt. Silver and Mt. Mortar. According to the folklore the meteorite shards that fell on this Mount became the famed Moon Stones. While not particularly fond of those tales, Ash thought it would be nice to obtain a Moon Stone or two as it was known to induce evolution on Nidorino and Nidorina, besides Jigglypuff and Clefairy. The trainer had none of those pokémon, but it was always better to be ready.

Readying himself, Ash started to climb the mountain. Bill told him of a shortcut of sorts, which consisted of climbing towards a series of abandoned tunnels instead of taking the long way through the base of the mountain. Unfortunately it also required a higher degree of physical effort, while Ash was extremely fit it still would most probably cost a toll in his body.

" _I should've gone through the Diglett's Cave_." Ash thought to himself as he saw the height of the mountain.

* * *

Ash was able to make steady progress at his way towards Pewter. His opinion of hikers changed a lot as he saw what they had to go through. The thing about hiking is that unlike some other sports, such as basketball or soccer, which required a certain degree of physical explosion to properly perform, it required endurance and strength as the hiker would be constantly subjecting his body to extenuation.

Ash's vision of a hiker was usually a fat, bearded guy with an enormous backpack, after meeting with some hikers at Mt. Moon he realized that this was a very stereotyped vision. Most of the hikers had some degree of fat mainly to counter the effects of the cold weather they were subjected at higher altitudes. Ash was already shivering midway through the hiking, when a hiker informed that when compared to Mt. Silver in Johto and Mt. Coronet in Sinnoh, Mt. Moon was a piece of cake. However despite the fat the hikers were extremely strong, as Ash noted when one of them crushed his hand when shaking hands.

Despite everything, Ash was able to learn a lot from the hikers. From basic things such as knots, to complex things that he hoped he would never have to use, such as survival in heavy snowstorm. He also was able to battle some of those hikers, thankfully they retorted to using rock types and Squirtle and Bulbasaur were able to easily dispatch them.

About three quarters of the way, Ash was cruising through a cave in order to begin his descent when he spotted a figure he didn't saw for years. Gary Oak.

Gary has spiky brown, reddish hair and wears black pants and a purple long-sleeved shirt. He also had a necklace with a circle pendant, divided in a ying-yang like pattern, with a side being green and the other yellow.

"Gary?"

"Ashy-boy?"

Ash groaned at the nickname, people always seemed to give him nicknames. Gary called him Ashy-boy, the Possum Hole Reds called him Young Smoke, Surge called him Private or sometimes Bomber, due to the bomber jacket he usually wore. How hard was to say Ash anyway? Just three letters.

"Long time no see, Gary."

"Don't tell me about, last time was five years ago, in Pallet, before you and your mother…" he then stopped talking as he realized he mentioned Delia

Ash noticed this, and gave a small reassuring smile

"It's okay, I got over it." Ash said

Gary then looked at Pikachu, who stood at Ash's shoulder

"Is that a shiny Pikachu?"

"Yes?"

"How did you get a shiny pokémon? There's like a 1 in 4096 chance to get one."

Ash then smiled.

"Sit down, I have a lot to tell."

* * *

Ash spent the next hours telling Gary about his life post Pallet Town, telling him about how he meet Pikachu, his training under Surge, how he befriended his pokémon and his battles, opting to not tell him about Giselle, Melanie or the Sensational Sisters.

They also shared intel on the gym leaders pokémon, Ash told Gary about Lily's Gyarados, Daisy's Goldeen and Violet's Seel and in return Gary told him that Brock specializes in rock types and uses a Geodude and a Onix.

Gary then took a Pokéball from his backpack, showing it to Ash.

"Remember this?"

"Is this the pokéball we found fishing?"

"Yes, we promised we would decide who would keep it someday, I think today is the best moment to do so."

"Rules?"

"One on One."

"Let's do it." Ash said, getting in position

"Go Squirtle." Gary said, calling his starter

"Squir." The turtle pokémon cried, entering battle instance

"Charmander, I need your help." Ash said, calling the lizard pokémon

"Char! Char!" the fire type cried enthusiastically

"A fire type? What you're planning Ashy-boy?"

"You'll see soon enough."

"Squirtle, use Bubble."

"Counter it with Ember." Ash commanded

The attacks clashed, exploding.

"Charmander, use Smokescreen."

"Use Rapid Spin to counter it."

The turtle used the momentum of the spin to dispel the smoke, landing a hit on Charmander.

"Char…" the lizard pokémon groaned in pain

"Keep your head up Charmander. I promise I won't let that happen again."

"Squirtle, use Tackle."

The turtle pokémon dashed forward, running at Ash's pokémon.

"Use Growl to stop his momentum, then counter with Scratch."

The lizard pokémon nodded, gazing fiercely at the amphibious pokémon who was charging at him. The growl attack didn't stopped the turtle, but it slowed him a bit as it cringed at Charmander's cry, it gave the opening Charmander needed to land a hit straight at Squirtle's head, sending the water type tumbling backwards.

Squirtle got up, shining with a blue aura, his burgundy eyes turning blue.

"Torrent…" both trainers muttered in unison

"Great, it's all we needed." Gary exclaimed. "Charge your most powerful Water Gun."

The turtle readied his attack as Ash analyzed the situation.

" _If this attack lands Charmander will lose, unfortunately while Squirtle's Torrent activated, Charmander's HP hasn't lowered enough to trigger Blaze… on the bright side if I land just another attack, Squirtle will faint. Charmander won't be able to get into his defenses so easily, so there's just a thing to do, force a stalemate."_

"Charmander, charge your strongest Dragon Rage."

As both pokémon looked ready to fire their attacks, a loud explosion was heard, followed by a pinkish pokémon entering the makeshift battlefield.

" _A Clefairy?"_

"Cancel the attack." Both trainers said in unison.

"Looks like our battle will have to be postponed." Ash noted as three figures approached the duo, following the Clefairy.

The first figure spotted an all-black outfit with a Red 'R' and ablack cap. The other two figures wore white outfits with the 'R' printed at their belly area and had a walking Meowth.

The man has a blue hair and green eyes, while the female spotted magenta hair at waist length and blue eyes.

" _Team… I'm gonna remember, it starts with R and is a NBA team… Team Raptors, that's it."_

"Gary handle the black one, I'll take on the duo." Ash said, getting a nod from the trainer.

As soon as Ash glanced at the duo they got into a dramatic pose.

"Prepare for trouble!"

"Make it double!"

"To protect the world from devastation!"

"To unite all people within our nation!"

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"

"To extend our reach to the stars above!"

"Jessie!"

"James!"

"Team Rocket, blast off at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now, or prepare to fight!"

"Meowth! That's right!"

Ash sweatdropped at the trio antics.

"I have lots of questions…how you keep changing the background?" Ash said pointing to the rock with a 'R' carved behind that literally appeared out of the nowhere in the trio introduction. "Where did you take that rose from?" Ash then asked pointing to the rose at James's hand. "And finally… DID THAT MEOWTH JUST TALK?"

"Special effects, I have a rose pouch and yes, Meowth can talk." James said.

"I see…"

"Now, get out of the way so we can get our hands in that Clefairy." Jesse said.

"Sorry, but this won't happen. Pikachu, show them who's boss." Ash replied

"Twerp." Jesse said, throwing a pokéball

"You leave us no choice." James said, throwing another pokéball.

The two pokéballs opened, revealing an Ekans and a Koffing.

"Two on one? Not the fair types huh?"

"Pikachu, I'll give you an extra bottle of Ketchup if you defeat the two of them at the same time.

Pikachu cried in enthusiasm, before glaring at Ekans and Koffing.

"Pika Pika Pikachu, Pikachu." ( _Nobody gets on my way when ketchup is involved_ ) Pikachu cried fiercely.

The Rocket duo used all kinds of tricks in an attempt to land a hit on Pikachu, but the rodent used his speed to avoid these attempts, before finishing the duo with a combination of Electroweb and Thundershock.

"I'd surrender now." Ash said with a smirk

"Never." Jessie said. "Go fight, Meowth."

"Me?" the cat pokémon asked incredulously

"We need to complete the mission." James said.

Meowth then sighed, getting in battle stance.

"I'll make it fair." Ash said. "Pikachu, rest now, you'll get your ketchup when we get into Pewter, Meowth lend me your help."

The pokéball revealed Ash's Meowth as he glared at Team Rocket's Meowth.

"Fury Swipes." Ash said, while Tea Meowth used his own Fury Swipes attack to counter it.

"Bite." Ash commanded, while Team Rocket's Meowth once again countered the attack with his own bite attack.

"Damnit. Screech." Ash said, while Team Rocket's Meowth used his own screech to nullify Ash's command.

" _Really a copycat."_

"I can do this all day." Meowth said mockingly, earning a glare from Ash's Meowth.

Ash's Meowth was pissed beyond limits, how dared he to taunt him and his trainer, so he gave in to his instincts. He crossed his arms, and focused energy at the Amulet coin in his forehead, causing it glow, launching a barrage of coins at Team Rocket's Meowth.

"Payday?" Ash asked in disbelief

"Shit." Meowth said, being hit by the attack.

"Great job Meowth." Ash praised his cat pokémon.

The praise was everything Meowth needed, his trainer, and friend trusted him, and that was all that mattered. The catalyst had been used. Meowth then was enveloped by a white energy, as he changed forms.

A few moments later the glow stopped, revealing the newly evolved Persian. Persian is a large, quadruped, feline Pokémon. Its fur is pale tan with the exception of its black-rimmed ears. It has a short muzzle with a small, black nose, red eyes with slit pupils, rounded ears, a pair of pointed teeth in its upper jaw, and three whiskers on either side of its face.

"Persian, ready to finish this?" Ash asked getting a nod from his pokémon.

"Blast them off with a full powered Payday."

The feline then fired a powerful blast of coins from the ruby in his forehead, hitting the rocket trio and the soldier who was battling Gary.

"Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!" they said in unison, before disappearing in a twinkle.

"I could've handled them you know?" Gary asked

"I know, but I Pikachu and Meowth, I mean Persian, to get more battle experience." Ash explained

Gary huffed. "I believe we still have a battle."

"You're right."

As the trainers got into their respective positions, readying their pokéballs, another pink figure appeared, a Jigglypuff.

"Jigglypuff?" both trainers asked in confusion.

The pink pokémon then took a microphone and started to sing, causing Ash and Gary to fall asleep.

* * *

Ash yawned lazily as he woke up, glancing around he saw Gary do the same. What caught Ash's attention however, were to doodles in Gary's face. Ash gasped as Gary did the same.

"He doodled on my face too right?" both asked in unison.

"I have a mirror Gary said, drawing a mirror from his pocket."

The duo finally saw their doodled faces, courtesy of Jigglypuff.

Gary's markings were a pair of googles and a marking on his left face that strongly resembled a penis.

Ash's markings were some whiskers in his cheeks while a small moustache was drawn in his face, Ash didn't realized but the moustache pattern emulated the one from a certain guy, who caused the WWII.

Gary then started to snicker, earning a glare from Ash.

"What you're laughing at, dickface?"

"Nothing, _mein führer."_

Both teens looked at the mirror and at each other, gapping at the drawings.

"Squirtle, use water gun on me." Both teens said in unison, calling their respective pokémon

As the duo finally cleaned their faces, they turned to each other.

"This won't leave this place." Ash said

"We agree that nobody can ever know that this happened." Gary concluded

"You know what? Let's split the ball in a half anyway, the sooner we got out of here the better." Ash proposed, getting a nod from Gary.

Gary then handled the ball to Ash, who used a knife to split it in a half.

"Good luck at Cerulean." the trainer from Vermilion said

"Good luck at Pewter." The grandson of Samuel Oak responded

* * *

In opposition to the uphill Route 4, Ash was a lot faster now that he was going downhill. Ash decided to rest at a Pokémon Center at the base of Mt. Moon, so he arrived at Pewter at the early morning, if things went well he could leave the town in two days max.

As he entered the city he saw a tall man approaching, the man has tanned skin and a full grown beard. He wears a red cap, covering his forehead and a part of his eyes.

" _Shit, I'm going to be robbed."_

"I'm not going to rob you." The man said as he approached Ash.

Ash let out a sigh of relief, before addressing the man.

"I never said you were going to rob me."

"But you thought so."

"Can't say I hadn't." the trainer admitted

"I assume you're a trainer and you're going to challenge the Pewter Gym."

"Yes."

"Do you know the rules?"

"Two pokémon each, single battle."

"And which pokémon do you want to use?"

"I'll use Charmander and Persian."

"Two pokémon with weakness against rock types." The man said

"Type matchups aren't everything, plus I still have some tricks up my sleeve. I fully trust my pokémon capability to win. "

"I really doubt that, Brock is one of the best trainers in Kanto."

"And who are you? His father?"

"No." the man blurted out quickly. "My name is Flint and I sell rocks and teach pokémon rock type moves."

"Nice, what kind of rocks?"

"Regular rocks, Pewter is known for its Stone Quarry." Flint said pointing to a quarry on the on a cliff

"Cool, I guess. You mentioned you teach some rock type moves… what's the fee?"

"Usually I ask for shards, they're very popular nowadays, but I'm willing to teach a rock move for free to one of your pokémon if you beat my Graveler."

"Sounds good to me. Charmander, get ready to rumble" Ash said as he called his fire pokémon.

"You're really using a fire type against a Ground/Rock type?" Flint asked

"It'll be a good measure of how ready Charmander is to fight at Pewter Gym."

"If you insist… Go, Graveler." Flint said, calling his pokémon

"Let's start smart Charmander, use Smokescreen."

The lizard pokémon then expelled smoke form his mouth covering the entire battlefield.

"Covering the battlefield in smoke to take advantage of rock type moves low accuracy, sage strategy, however it is still bound to fail. Graveler, shake things up with Bulldoze."

"Leap and use Dragon Rage at the center of the field, Graveler can't move when he's performing this attack."

The starter quickly leapt above, barely avoiding the attack and firing a Dragon Rage attack at Graveler.

Flint gritted his teeth as the move connected to his Graveler.

"Don't think you've won yet, Rock type pokémon defenses are what make them stand out from the rest."

"Graveler, use Defense Curl, then use a standing Rollout to clear this damn smoke."

The rock type nodded, curling and rolling at the same place, slowly clearing the smoke.

"Charmander, Dragon Rage once again."

The lizard pokémon fired the attack at the rolling Graveler. The move apparently didn't affect the rock type a single bit as he kept rolling.

"Don't get cocky boy, there's no way to pierce through Graveler's stellar defenses. Now your defenses are open. Crush him, Graveler."

The rolling pokémon then took the direction of Charmander.

"Keep calm Charmander, step aside in the last second."

The fire starter nodded, sidestepping the attack, causing Graveler to crash against a wall. The rolling stopped and Graveler had spirals in his eyes.

"Impossible." Flint said

"You got cocky." Ash said teasingly

Flint sighed, he knew that he was beaten, but a question still lingered on his mind.

"How?"

"I agree with you, there was no way for Charmander to pierce through Graveler defenses, not at this point anyway, so instead of piercing through I just got around." Ash explained

Flint then had a look of realization as he facepalmed.

"Dragon Rage."

"Yes, Dragon Rage doesn't take attack and defense at his damage calculation, instead dealing straight constant damage at the opponent's HP. A very useful tool for pre evolved pokémon as they usually don't have that much strength yet."

"I must admit, you got me good there." Flint said laughing. "Now a promise is a promise, do you have a TM case?"

"I do."

"Then take those two as a reward for teaching this old man a lesson." Flint said, handling Ash two CDs with a shiny brownish to yellow color.

"Those are the TMs for Rock Slide and Ancient Power. Rock Slide is powerful physical move that can cause flinching status to the opponent should it hit. Ancient Power is one of the two rock type attacks which use special stats, the other being Power Gem, it has average power but has a small chance of raising all the user's stats at once by one stage. However it has limited usage, the maximum I think you can use this move without having your pokémon to rest is five times."

"Sweet." Ash said as he stored the TMs at the TM case.

When he turned to thank Flint he wasn't there anymore

* * *

Ash then headed to the Pokémon center in order to restore his Charmander. As he left the center he could finally pay attention to the layout of the city. Pewter was a fairly large city, with lots of apartment buildings, from downtown Pewter you could clearly see both Mt. Moon and the peak of Mt. Silver. If you took went north from Pewter, through the mountain range, you would end up at the small independent Kingdom of Rota, home of the ancient Aura Guardians.

" _I should probably call Leaf, I promised to meet her anyway…"_ Ash though absently minded, before he spotted a girl with brown hair and white hat.

"Hey Leaf." Ash called as the girl turned around, spotting a smile as she saw Ash

"Ash." The girl said hugging him

"I was going to call you…" Ash began to say before being interrupted by a girlish squeal.

"SO…CUTE." Leaf said as she hugged Ash's Pikachu, who looked ready to murder her.

Ash sighed, giving him a ' _don't shock her and I'll give you free ketchup_ ' look to Pikachu, who responded Ash with a ' _make it double_ ' look, causing Ash to nod.

"So Ash, I wanted to see if you wanted to join me."

"Join you for what?"

"Shopping of course." Leaf said smiling

Ash paled at these words

" _God have mercy on my soul."_ He thought as he was being dragged by Leaf

* * *

Despite being used as a pack donkey by Leaf, Ash enjoyed the shopping because Leaf offered to pay him a meal. Considering Ash started his journey a month ago and since then his diet consisted only of canned food, he wouldn't be idiot to refuse a good, free meal, even if it meant going through hell, or worse, shopping. As they sat down at a small restaurant, they talked about their journey so far, with Ash being sensitive enough to not mention his success in the dating department.

Leaf told Ash that she still didn't made her mind about what path to choose, as she saw herself unable to decide if she wanted to compete at the league or just travel around.

"If you want you can watch my battle against Brock, to see if you really want to try battling." Ash suggested

"It would be great." Leaf beamed

As they left the restaurant and headed towards the gym, Ash felt someone tapping at his shoulder.

He turned to see a girl long waist length pink hair and blue eyes. She wears a light brown coat, tied with a red belt and a burgundy skirt. The girl seemed to be a year or two older than Ash.

"Excuse me, but can I battle against your Pikachu?" the girl asked politely

"Yes, but can I ask why Pikachu specifically?"

"Because he's shiny." The girl explained

"You know shiny pokémon aren't stronger than their normal counterparts right?"

"Yes, but I'd like to see how it performs in battle, I'm a rookie coordinator, so a shiny is a rare commodity at our circle."

"Coordinator, so you're not from Kanto?"

"No, I'm from Pewter actually."

"But there are no contests in Kanto." Leaf interjected

"There's an experimental project to instate Contests in Kanto." The girl said. "For the time it's still at an amateur level, but Mr. Contesta itself stated that he planned to bring contests to Kanto."

"What do you mean by experimental project?" Leaf inquired

"There's very little budget, so the Contest Circuit will be held in small towns as opposed to Hoenn and Sinnoh, where they're held in big cities. The finals will probably be held in Saffron or even as a preliminary of the Pokémon League. Also there's little media coverage, but it's still interesting." The pink haired coordinator explained

"Well, I had no idea that there was something like that in Kanto." Ash admitted

"Hopefully the project will be a success and soon Kanto will fully fledged Contest Halls."

"Yes, it will be good for the region. Now I believe I promised you a battle, miss …" Ash said, turning to the girl

"Solidad." The girl said.

"Can I watch the battle?" Leaf asked

"I'm fine with it, what about you Solidad?"

"No problems."

"A one on one battle sounds fine to you?" Ash asked

"Yes, it would be ideal."

"Let's begin then, Pikachu, I'm counting on you."

"Go Pidgeotto."

" _I have the advantage here, but I doubt Solidad will make things easier for us."_

" _Better start with a feint."_ Ash concluded

"Pikachu, use Quick Attack."

The rodent dashed towards the avian pokémon, readying a attack.

"Evade this with an airborne pirouette." Solidad commanded.

Pidgeotto then did a beautiful pirouette to avoid Pikachu's strike.

"Pikachu, don't give up, use Quick Attack once again."

The rodent once again quickly gained momentum, dashing towards the flying type.

"Let's tire him out, evade it with a pirouette." Solidad ordered

As soon as Pidgeotto left the ground Ash grinned.

"Use Quick Attack's momentum to leap towards Pidgeotto and hit him with our new attack."

Pikachu did as asked of him getting at Pidgeotto's face, before grinning wickedly. The electric type then spun around in a pirouette, before using his tail to Slam Pidgeotto to the ground.

"Pidgeotto." Solidad cried in concern

The flying type slowly got up, readying himself for battle once again.

"Pikachu, use Thundershock."

"Pidgeotto, use Feather Dance to deflect the attack."

Pidgeotto then opened his wings, launching a flurry of white colored feathers towards Pikachu's attack, dispelling it.

"Great use of this move to dispel Pikachu's attack." Ash complimented

"Thanks." Solidad said with an almost unnoticeable blush.

"However, don't think even for a moment that you've won this battle." Ash said in a serious tone

"Quick attack." The Vermilion City trainer commanded

"Use Double Team to confuse him." Solidad said

Pikachu and Ash smirked at the same time.

"You fell onto our trap, it's over. Pikachu, use Electroweb."

The rodent then fired a large Electroweb, hitting several of the Pidgeotto duplicates, including the original, tying him to the ground.

"There's no way for Pidgeotto to escape this." Ash said in an advisory tone. "Please recall your pokémon, the battle is over."

Solidad looked indecisive for a moment before sighing and recalling Pidgeotto.

"Thank you." She muttered as she held the pokéball.

Ash then walked towards her, offering his hand in a handshake.

"This was a good battle, I learned a lot and should this was a contest battle you'd have won for sure."

Solidad smiled, shaking Ash's hand.

"Your Pikachu is excellent, also your tactics using Quick Attack to build momentum really caused me lots of trouble."

"In the end we both learned something and that's all that matters."

"That was amazing." Leaf said as she joined the duo

"Your take on contest battles?" Ash asked

"It's interesting, but I still want to see your battle with Brock to make up my mind."

"You're challenging Brock?" Solidad asked

"Yes."

"Can I tag along and watch the battle? Brock is highly regarded here and I'm eager to see more of your tactics."

"Sure, the more the merrier. You know the way towards the gym?" Ash asked

"Yes, follow me."

* * *

The Pewter Gym was large stone building at the outskirts of the town. Behind the gym there was a large house, with white painted walls and pink roof. Ash opened the door to the gym allowing the two girls to go ahead of him, chivalry wasn't dead. He then was greeted by a boy slightly younger than Ash with tanned skin, spiky brown hair and squinted eyes.

"Hi, welcome to the Pewter Gym."

"Hi." Ash greeted "I'd like to challenge the leader for a battle, is that possible?" the trainer asked politely.

"Brock is a bit busy taking care of his siblings, could you wait thirty minutes?"

"Sure, tell him to don't hurry, I've got time." Ash said as the youngster nodded

The Vermilion trainer then looked at Solidad with a quizzical look.

The rookie coordinator caught the meaning of the look.

"Brock has nine siblings, the one that greeted us was the oldest beside Brock himself, Forrest if I'm not mistaken."

"I see … anything else I should know?"

"Both his parents left in order to pursue their own goals, leaving Brock alone to care for his siblings."

"Rough shit…" Ash commented

The conversation died down as Ash analyzed the battlefield. The main field consisted of several rocks and boulders, giving Rock types the perfect environment to perform.

"Ash, which pokémon are you going to use?" Leaf asked

"I've heard this is a two-on-two battle, so I'm planning on using Charmander and Persian."

"But both of those can't damage Rock types." Leaf argued

"Type matchups aren't everything, earlier today I defeated a Graveler using Charmander, and also today, Solidad here almost got the best of Pikachu using a flying type."

The trio then chattered for some minutes until a figure appeared.

"Thanks for waiting, I'm the gym leader, Brock." The man said

Brock appeared to be seventeen years older, maybe a year more or less. He was very similar to his sibling Forrest, being an aged version of him, with spiky brown hair, tanned skin and squinted eyes. He wears a brown pants and an orange t-shirt, covered by a green vest.

"I assume you're the challenger." Brock said as he glanced at Ash, then turning to the two girls who were beside him. "And those are your girlfriends." The leader said with a lecherous grin

Solidad's blush matched the color of her hair, while Leaf yelled promptly.

"HE'S NOT MY BOYFRIEND."

While Leaf had to admit that Ash was absolutely handsome and a great friend, she only saw him as that, a friend. She had a pretty good idea about Serena's crush on him and this made Ash definitively off limits for her. Truth to be told her affections leaned towards someone else…

Ash sweatdropped at Leaf's outburst, being distracted enough to not notice Solidad's blush.

"Anyway, I'm Ash Ketchum from Vermilion City and I'd like to challenge you for this gym badge."

"Very well, then. Here we do two on two single battles, only the challenger is allowed to switch pokémon." Brock said.

The leader then turned to Forrest, who just entered the gym with another eight carbon copies of Brock.

"Forrest, can you officiate for me?"

"Sure."

"This will be an official gym battle between gym leader Brock Harrison and challenger Ash Ketchum from Vermilion City. Each trainer will have two pokémon and only the challenger is allowed to change pokémon mid battle. Trainers, send out your first pokémon."

"Geodude, I need your help." Brock said as he called his first pokémon.

"Geo, geo, Geodude." The pokémon cried

Geodude is a gray boulder Pokémon. It has bulging, rocky eyebrows and trapezoidal, brown eyes. Its arms are muscular with five-fingered hands.

" _Graveler's pre-evolution, so let's stick with the previous tactic."_

"Charmander, I choose you."

"CHAR!' The lizard starter roared in excitement

"Begin." Forrest said as the two pokémon took battle stances

"Geodude, use Defense Curl."

" _The same setup Flint used earlier, Defense Curl to enhance Geodude's defense before using a combo with Rollout."_ Ash noted

"Charmander, fire a quick Dragon Rage."

The lizard nodded, being already familiarized with Ash's strategies, firing a strong attack at Geodude.

Geodude, who embraced himself, felt lots of pain as the attack landed, surprising him and Brock.

"Hold on Geodude, use Rollout." Brock commanded quickly

"Charmander, use Smokescreen as coverage and hide between the rocks."

The fire type let out a smoky breath, quickly taking cover

Geodude, unable to see due to the momentum and the smoke, just rolled around, waiting for any commands from Brock.

Brock then had the same idea Flint had earlier.

"Roll at the same place to dispel the smoke."

"No you don't, Charmander finish this with another Dragon Rage." Ash yelled

The starter the leapt from his hiding spot, firing the blue purplish beam straight at the rock type, who upon being hit stopped rolling immediately, laying at the ground with swirls in his eyes.

Brock recalled his pokémon before smirking.

"I see your strategy now, using Dragon Rage to cause the constant damage as a way to surpass my Rock types strong defenses." The leader said, before taking another pokéball.

"I won't allow this to happen twice, go Onix."

Onix is a snake like pokémon with his body being composed by rock chains.

Ash was about to recall Charmander to send Persian but the fire type roared, as a way to show he still had a lot energy to burn and wanted to continue.

"You're sure of this, Charmander?" Ash asked, getting a nod from the fire type.

"Begin."

"Onix, use Rock Tomb."

Several of the smaller rocks, alongside few of the larger ones, on the battlefield were launched towards Charmander.

"Charmander, use the bigger stones as a platform to leap above him and fire a Dragon Rage." Ash commanded

Swiftly jumping from the slowly approaching rocks, Charmander gave a roar as he opened his mouth to launch the attack.

"Onix, use your tail to Slam him to the ground." Brock commanded

The giant rock pokémon then did a spin to send his tail towards Charmander, who was unable to avoid the attack midair, sending him colliding onto the jagged rocks.

"Charmander." Ash yelled in concern

The crash created a large dust cloud, when it cleared Charmander stood still, with several bruises, but his will to battle wasn't affected.

Ash, after seeing that Charmander still wished to fight developed a strategy on the fly.

" _Dragon Rage needs a small amount of time to prepare, and Brock is basing his strategy in taking this time out of us. The only reasonable way to win this is to pierce his defenses or tire him out. His defenses are almost untouchable, but his attack…"_ Ash thought with a almost unnoticeable smirk.

"Onix, finish this with Tackle."

"Charmander, stay still."

Most of pokémon would question his trainer's orders at this situation, but Charmander was different. His loyalty to Ash was unrivaled, he'd go to the depths of hell if it meant being with his trainer, his friend. So he did as asked, glaring at the approaching Onix.

As the Onix approached, Ash inhaled deeply.

" _Here goes nothing."_

"Sidestep and use Ember."

Charmander, in complete sync with Ash executed his commands instantly, exhaling a small fireball that connected at Onix body. The rock type seemed unaffected however.

"Good job Charmander, let's keep at it."

* * *

In the stands, Brock's siblings, Leaf and Solidad seemed confused. The sibling, who cheered loudly for Brock started to say that Ash was a dumb trainer and that Charmander defeating Geodude was a lucky break. They were promptly silenced by glares from Solidad and Leaf, but Ash's childhood friend still turned to whisper at Solidad's ear.

"What is Ash doing?"

"I don't know." Was the sincere response of the coordinator.

Solidad then glanced at the raven haired boy ever confident expression

" _What are you planning, Ash?"_

* * *

Brock looked at the scene emotionlessly. While he wasn't surprised by Onix being unaffected by Charmander's attack, he knew Ash did have a plan, and he wasn't willing to give him any openings.

"Onix, use Rock Tomb."

The free rocks slowly levitated, launching towards Ash's pokémon.

"The same as before, use the rocks as a walkway." Ash commanded

Charmander nodded, using the bigger rocks as a pathway.

"I won't let you, Onix, Slam him when he's above you."

Ash smirked.

"And who said he's going to be above? Charmander, jump under him and fire Embers at will."

Instead of leaping at the air the small lizard jumped in front of Onix. Due to the size difference, Onix could barely see the small fire type, and couldn't coil his rigid body faster, being subjected to a nonstop barrage of small embers burning his body.

Since Charmander adopted a gun and run strategy, he managed to connect five or six attacks at the rock type, who still seemed unaffected.

Onix finally managed to maneuver his own body standing face to face with Charmander.

Ash held a breath.

" _Now or never."_

Suddenly Onix's body started to glow a faint shade of red, making a burning sound.

* * *

Solidad who intently admired the battle and Ash's strategies suddenly got up her seat with a smile.

"Ash just won this battle." She exclaimed getting confused looks from Leaf and Brock's siblings.

"How?" the group asked in unison, before it dawned at Leaf too.

"Ash burned Onix."

"Burning causes steady damage to the opposing pokémon besides halving its attack. Due to those combined effects even if Onix manages to defeat Charmander, he'll be knocked out by the status condition before it defeats Ash's other pokémon." Solidad elaborated further to Brock's siblings who seemed a bit upset at their brother loss.

* * *

"I've fallen at your trap." Brock admitted, before looking straight at Ash's eyes. "I know when to admit defeat." He said as he took Onix's pokéball.

"Brock, could I please ask you to not call the battle off?" the Vermilion trainer asked, surprising everyone present

"Why?"

"This has been the most challenging battle I had since I started my journey, it would be a shame if it ended without a clear winner. Besides, both Charmander and Onix seem to be determined to win this one, it became a sort of personal battle for them." Ash explained, gazing at Onix and Charmander who ignored everything around them focused only at the ongoing match.

Brock seemed to notice the atmosphere too, nodding in approval.

"Onix let's show our rock hard determination." Brock said, earning a roar of approval from the rock type.

"Charmander, let's show them the power of our bond." Ash said, deciding to hype up his pokémon

Charmander, instead of roaring in approval like Onix did, became enveloped in a bright white light.

His body grew as a whole, almost doubling his height. His digits in both feet and arms developed into three white claws. He developed a snout and a horn prototype at the top of his head. His orange body turned into a vibrant red, while his cream colored belly became slightly darker. His tail also grew in size, and the fire in its end burned stronger than ever.

"Char!" the newly evolved pokémon roared as he contemplated the changes to his body, giving an approving grin.

"Charmeleon…" Ash muttered.

Charmeleon then looked at Ash, nodding at him, they had a battle to finish.

"Onix, show our worth with Dig." Brock commanded as his pokémon disappeared underground.

Meanwhile Ash gazed at Charmeleon, particularly his claws which shined a metallic shade of white.

" _Could it be?"_

He then, refocused his attention to the battle.

"Charmeleon, jump atop the highest rock you see."

The newly evolved fire type did as asked, standing atop the highest rock on the battlefield, his claw still glowing white. As the ground started to tremble, he heard his trainer's voice once again.

"He's coming for us, jump above….NOW." Ash yelled as Onix's head erupted off the ground.

The evolved lizard then leapt higher than he ever did, propelled by his stronger legs. However Onix's body was quickly approaching and closing distance as he emerged from the ground.

"Charmeleon, spin and use Metal Claw to repel Onix."

"Onix, Slam him with your tail." Brock commanded

Charmeleon's spin got him out of Onix's head way, but as he connected the blow at the right side of the rock type face he also felt the opponent's tail slamming him to the ground.

Both pokémon were sent crashing towards opposite sides of the field, as the trainers and the audience held their breaths to see who won. The two pokémon bravely got up, staring down at each other. Charmeleon then let out a grunt of pain, standing at one knee. Onix then gave the lizard a weak smile, before the burn took the tool in his body as he fell to the ground.

"W-Winner is Ash Ketchum of Vermilion City." Forrest said as the crowd clapped and cheered loudly at the amazing battle they watched.

The trainers recalled their pokémon, before meeting at the center of the battlefield.

"Thanks for the battle." Ash said as he shook Brock's hand

"This was the most interesting battle I had in a while, so I also have to thank you."

Forrest then approached with a red cushion with a metallic item atop of it.

Brock nodded, taking the item and offering it to Ash.

"Your Charmeleon powerful attacks overcame my rock-hard resistance... You're stronger than I expected... Go ahead, take this Boulder Badge."

The Boulder Badge was a octagon shaped metallic badge, with the shape of a rock, Ash nodded in acceptance, opening his badge case, storing it beside the Cascade badge he got in Cerulean.

Leaf and Solidad quickly rushed behind Ash. Leaf hugged him first, congratulating him for the win and praising his battling skills before releasing the hug. Solidad however said nothing, hugging tightly and much longer than Leaf, when he released she had a big blush. Brock who stood watching the scene from the sidelines gave a approving nod.

As the trio was leaving the gym, escorted by Brock, Leaf turned to Ash.

"In which hotel you're staying?"

"Hotel? Like hell I'd spend my money in one, I'm staying at the Pokémon Center."

"Ash, you don't know?" Leaf asked surprised

"Don't know what?"

"There's an annual festival being held in Rota, north of here." Solidad explained

"Pewter being the closest city has record occupancy rate at the hotels and the pokémon center." Brock concluded

"I guess I'll have to check in into a cheap one then." Ash said

"Things aren't as easy as you say, most of the city's hotels are full, if I'm not mistaken only four and five star hotels still had available rooms." Brock said

"Like hell I will spend my money in an overly luxurious place just to sleep there." Ash yelled angrily. "You know what, I'm camping tonight."

Solidad looked in a deep dilemma, while Leaf accused Ash of being mingy.

Brock then interceded.

"I have some free rooms at my house, I have no problems with you staying here for a night, besides I'm sure the young ones loved petting your Pikachu.

The rodent who for the most of the time during the battle had hidden himself in order to avoid the before mentioned pettings looked at Ash fearfully. Ash just grinned at the rodent before turning to Brock.

"Pikachu would love to play with your siblings." Ash said as Pikachu cursed Ash's relatives in Pikaspeech.

* * *

Ash quickly retreated himself to the room Brock provided him, but was unable to sleep. His restlessness could be explained by the exciting battle he had earlier, or the fear of Pikachu's revenge, the latter being most likely. Ash then wandered around the house, it was 23:00 hours and most of Brock's siblings already were asleep. Ash then looked at the backyard, noticing a basketball hoop. He slowly walked towards it.

Ash has a deep love for sports, mainly basketball and soccer, but also was a fan of football and boxing. Basketball was his favorite however. He was introduced to the game by Lt. Surge, who standing at 7'4" (2.24 m) and being born at the birthplace of the sport had everything to be a big fan, a thing he in fact was. During his two years of training under the 'The Lightning American' he had a weekly game of Basketball against the leader, the current score was 95-0 in favor of Surge. Despite his constant defeats Ash grew to like the sport, constantly watching NBA games during his free time. He also was his middle school basketball team superstar Shooting Guard and even received several scholarship offers from some prestigious prep schools to play for their teams in high school. Ultimately Ash refused them in order to go to a journey as a trainer. But should his journey fail, Ash knew he has a steady future in basketball.

"You play?" came a voice from behind him

Ash turned his head to see Brock holding a basketball.

The trainer then grinned.

"12 or 21?"

* * *

"I still can't believe you scored on me using a euro step." Brock commented as he and Ash were sitting at a wooden bench beside the half court.

Despite Brock's resistance and height advantage, Ash was able to claim the victory in basketball too, wining 21-18.

"I still can't believe it either." Ash joked as he drank water from a bottle.

"Now, for the truly important matters." Brock said with a serious tone. "Solidad had grown particularly fond of you." The gym leader said with a grin.

"Really?"

"I know Solidad for some time, when she got her first pokémon she came here often looking for tips. She was always the deadly serious type, suddenly Mr. Pretty Boy there" Brock said as he pointed at Ash. "appears and poor Solidad is blushing like mad and hugging you. I'm telling you right now, she wants The Pipe."

"The Pipe?" Ash asked with a doubtful look.

"Yep, The Pipe." Brock said reassuringly

Then Ash's phone suddenly began to rang. The trainer quickly picked it up, excusing himself.

Brock watched from the sidelines as Ash talked at the phone.

"Hello, this is Ash Ketchum."

…

"Tomorrow?"

…

"Sure." The trainer from Vermilion said as he hung up the phone

"Let me guess, Solidad." Brock said

"She asked if I wanted to meet her at the Pewter Museum of Science tomorrow." Ash explained

"Like I said…"

"I know… she wants The Pipe." Ash said sighing

"You're fast learner." Brock said grinning

"And you bro? Has anyone special?" Ash asked, trying to make a conversation

"I have a dream, to claim the hat. Blue or pink, doesn't matter." Brock said

"Hat?"

"Oh, rookie you still have lots to learn." Brock said dramatically

"The hat is the name to the achievement of having sex with every town which has a gym Nurse Joy or Officer Jenny, pink hat stands for sex with every Joy, while blue stands for every Jenny."

Ash looked at Brock with a dumbfounded expression, which could be translate as:

' _I'm disgusted, but curious.'_

But he quickly pushed these thoughts aside.

"No girlfriend here in Pewter?"

"I don't have time for this." Brock said seriously, while his voice carried a tone of… sadness?

Seeing where this was going Ash quickly interceded.

"Solidad told us about your backstory, of your parents leaving to pursue their own goals while you needed to stay behind and care for the rest of the siblings besides acting as a gym leader."

"I'm not complaining, but it feels so…" Brock begun

"…tiresome." Ash concluded, surprising Brock.

"It's like you're constantly forsaking your happiness for the sake of the others who are important for you. You want to stay mad because you're stuck in the same place, carrying the burden for the others, but I the other hand you can't because the ones you care depend of you and most of the times didn't asked to be put at this position." Ash explained, furtherly surprising Brock.

"How do you know?" Brock asked

"When I was eight… my mother… was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma, bone cancer, and I had to take care of her. Never heard of my father, hope the coward is dead." Ash said with unusual rage. "It was hard, eight years old man, I wasn't even in the age to take care of myself and suddenly I had to tend to my mother too. Suddenly there was no time for anything else, I almost failed school for absence, there was no time to cartoons or for fun. I felt anger too, my mother was the kindest person I've met and she was slowly dying in my front. She could've been healed if we had money to pay for an experimental treatment, but we were poor as shit." Ash said emotionally

"People who say money doesn't buy happiness are dead wrong, everything depends on money, and sadly we had none. Lots of things pissed me at that time, the lack of money, my life becoming shit, my mother and only relative dying…but what pissed me the most was my mother saddened expression, as if begging me for forgiveness for caring for her. Some of her last words to me were spent on apologies, and that was the most unfair thing I've ever witnessed. I hope I never have cancer, because it looks like it hurts like hell, there were time were my mother couldn't even sleep due to the pain. But worse than being slowly eaten from inside from a cancer is to be slowly eaten from inside by guilty." Ash concluded as a lone tear fell from his eyes.

"Ash…" Brock muttered in concern.

In return Ash just smiled at him.

"Thanks, Brock, the psychologist always told me it would be good if I opened up, he was right at the end."

"I never told anyone of this, not even Leaf or Surge, who were the closest persons to me."

In fact Ash didn't bothered to tell them because he knew Leaf would pity him and Surge had his own inner demons to face.

"I don't know why I said everything to you, probably because I see you in the same situation I was four years ago."

"Thanks for trusting me." Was all Brock could say

"Don't thank me, instead tell me of your problems, let's even things up."

Brock took a deep breath, this was going to be a long night.

* * *

Unknown to the duo, a lone figure watched them from afar, a lone tear sliding from his eye as he heard Brock talking to Ash.

" _My son, you've suffered so much, I'm so sorry."_

* * *

After waking up, Ash quickly dialed Leaf's number to see if she had already made a decision. Apparently, after witnessing both contest and gym matches, she decided to search the web for videos of the Pokémon League finals and some of the Grand Festivals held in Sinnoh and Hoenn. Surprisingly her decision came after she saw some of the performances of a coordinator in the 1992 Sinnoh Grand Festival. Berlitz, Johanna Berlitz, if Ash recalled correctly. So Leaf decided to sign in to participate at Kanto amateur festival.

Ash then went towards the Pewter Museum of Science and his date with Solidad. He actually liked the girl, she like him, had a serious attitude and a deep love for Pokémon. But truth to be told Ash wasn't looking for a girlfriend, he was still very young and the constant town skipping he made in his journey were an instant killer for any kind of budding relationship. Besides, as the first month of his journey proved, there were plenty of fish in the sea and considering Solidad's, Giselle's, Melanie's and the Sensational Sisters' attitude towards him he was very well rated as a dating prospect, so just jumping and settling at a relationship would be suicidal and anti-climactic to say the best, furthermore it could deviate his focus from his main goal: winning a league championship.

This didn't mean in any way that Ash was going to adopt Brock's F.F.F.F. (Find 'em, Feel 'em, Fuck 'em and Forget 'em) strategy. He wasn't opposed to meeting girls, and going out with them, but wasn't going to trivialize sex in that level, he was 12 years old for crying out loud.

However, Solidad being a traveler herself probably knew about all those points and like him probably was just looking for a casual thing. She didn't look like the clingy type.

Ash made sure to get there early as he feared he might get lost at the city despite the directions Brock gave him earlier.

Apparently the Museum was hosting an event to celebrate some important archeological discoveries their team made in a exploration in Unova, and despite not being a paid event, thus being in theory accessible to anyone interested, Ash didn't wanted to embarrass him, or Solidad for the matter by arriving late.

After five minutes of waiting, he finally saw Soledad approaching and he had to admit she was very pretty. She decided to go with a light blue long dress.

Ash also changed his look for the date, wearing a dark crimson red plain t-shirt and white denim pants. His hair had already grown a bit since he left and since this was a semi-formal event Ash opted to style it in a tuft instead of leaving it free and messy as he liked. His ever faithful Pikachu was resting inside his pokéball. Although the rodent disliked it, Ash thought it would be impolite to bring his pokémon along in a date.

"Hey." Ash said smiling

"Hey." Solidad greeted him back with a smile.

Ash then offered his arm to Solidad in a chivalric manner.

"Shall we go?"

"Yes." Solidad said as her took Ash's arm

* * *

The date was going well in Ash's opinion Solidad was a very pleasurable company, and they talked about lots of subjects while navigating through the museum exhibits. Pokémon strategy was the main subject, with Solidad explaining several of her contest combinations and Ash sharing some of his strategies with electric types and some ideas about some possible uses at contests, which Solidad eagerly accepted. Besides pokémon, Ash gave Soledad some insight about how things worked when you were constantly travelling. Soledad only had made short, one day trips, at max and was very inexperienced at this point. While Ash didn't dived further than saying that his mother was dead when asked about his family, he paid attention when Solidad told him that both her parents were executives at Silph Co. and therefore travelled a lot, making her mature quicker than most girls her age.

Ash silently noted that they didn't consume anything.

"Solidad, I'm going to the restroom, want me to get something on the way back?" he asked to his date

"I'd like a bottle of water." The salmon colored hair girl said.

"Okay, I'll be back in a sec." Ash said before making his way to the bathrooms.

Much to the raven haired trainer's surprise he came face to face with Brock as he entered the bathroom

"Brock? What are you doing here?"

"At the toilet?" Brock asked goofily

"No, at the museum."

"I received a request to give a lecture about rock types." He explained

"I see…"

"How's your date going?" Brock asked

"It has been great so far, I think I should go back to her anyway."

"Never come back empty handed." Brock advised

"I'm bringing her a bottle of water."

"How romantic." Brock said in a mocking tone

"Shut up…" Ash muttered

"Just kidding, I'll go with you, I'll probably need a bottle of water too."

As the duo left the restroom they were surprised to see that the previously full lobby was now empty.

"Weird…" Brock muttered.

The duo then went to the small are outside of the building where the food court was located, only to find it … empty.

"This is seriously starting to look like 'Night at the Museum'" Ash commented.

"Where you last saw Solidad?" Brock asked

"Near the Kabutops exhibit."

"Let's go there then."

They weren't surprised to see the area around the exhibit empty.

"Let's go to the main hall." Brock said

As soon as they saw several of the visitors, one of which being Solidad, tied while some Rocket grunts passed by, collecting their pokéballs.

"Team Rocket." Ash muttered

"Who?"

"It's a long story, right now we need to take them down."

"We're seriously outnumbered here."

"We will play their game, we will fight dirt." Ash said angrily

"What do you mean?"

"Which pokémon you have on hand?" Ash replied with another question

"Geodude and Onix."

"Great, we will use some non-lethal pokémon attacks at the grunts. I know it's poorly regarded but it's still the only way."

"How we're doing this?"

"Let's use the lesser attacks to mass the grunts together, and then they'll be walking straight at the Spider's web, or in this case the mouse's web."

"Okay." Brock said as he called upon his Onix and Geodude.

"Use Rock Tomb towards the grunts." Brock ordered in a whisper

Ash then called his pokémon.

"Charmeleon use Dragon Rage, Squirtle use Rapid Spin, Bulbasaur use Razor Leaf, Persian get through the grunts and use your claws to release the visitors, finally Pikachu, five extra bottles of ketchup if you trap them all with a single Electroweb."

The pokémon then divided themselves in groups and slowly surrounded the room.

"NOW." Was Ash's command that echoed through the room.

The grunts who were surprised by Ash's sudden yell then were surprised by the pokémon attacks onslaught, being unable to react.

As they massed together, Pikachu grinned wickedly and fired a Electroweb, that caught the entire group, constantly shocking them. While the voltage wasn't high enough to kill or cause permanent damage, it still served his purpose to restrain their movements.

Ash and Brock then went towards the visitors which hadn't been untied yet. Ash neared Solidad with a smile, however the girl expression suddenly changed from happiness to terror.

"ASH! BEHIND YOU!" the coordinator yelled

Ash turned to see a grunt who wasn't caught at the web charging at him, with a knife in his hands.

" _Fuck…"_

However in the last minute the charging grunt was intercepted by a tackle from Brock, who managed to loosen the enemy's grip on the knife, forcing a drop.

When Ash was about to thank Brock another grunt appeared, attacking Brock from behind. Thankfully this grunt however wasn't armed. Ash quickly acted, launching himself towards the grunt straddling him before unleashing a flurry of punches at his face.

Ash's action however was interrupted when Officer Jenny appeared at the scene.

"That's enough." She said, directly at Ash

The trainer shrugged, launching another punch at the grunt's face, before getting up.

" _Just to make sure…"_ he mentally justified

He and Brock then turned to Jenny.

"What you did was extremely brave." The officer praised, before scowling. "And extremely stupid either, be thankful they hadn't any fire guns." She said in a scolding tone

"But thanks to your effort we managed to prevent a mass robbery of both pokémon and precious artifacts of this museum." Jenny said happily.

"I barely did anything, Brock here was the mastermind of the plan." Ash lied, looking at Brock

" _I'm setting you up, don't waste this chance."_

Brock gratefully nodded at Ash, before engaging Jenny in conversation.

The trainer then went towards Solidad, who launched herself at his arms, catching Ash's lips in a kiss. The wasn't overly chaste as when he was with Melanie or Giselle nor overly lustful when he was with the sensational sisters, being the balance between the two.

"My hero…" Solidad said blushing

"If this is the reward, I should probably save people more often." Ash joked

* * *

As the Ash was about to leave, he heard a scientist calling for him and Brock.

"I'll be right back." He said to Solidad, before going towards where the scientist was.

"Gentlemen, I'd like to thank you for your acts during the robbery. If weren't for you the grunts would probably be successful at the robbery."

"It was nothing, Pewter is my city and I'm its gym leader, it's my duty to protect my home." Brock said in a solemn tone

"I'm not from Pewter, but I wouldn't be better than those robbers if I did nothing to stop them." Ash said

"Still such valiant display of bravery demands a compensation of sorts." The scientist said as two of his assistants appeared carrying…fossils?

"Those are some surplus we have here, I'd like to offer them to you as a prize."

He gestured towards the first assistant, who carried two different fossils in each of his hands.

"Those are the Helix and Dome Fossils."

He then gestured towards the second assistant who held a amber colored fossil.

"This is the Old Amber."

"Sir, there's no need to…" Brock tried to argument

"I insist."

Brock then looked at Ash.

"Which one do you want?"

"I think I'll take the Old Amber, you can take the Dome and Helix fossils?"

"Sure."

The assistants handed the items to the trainers as the scientist once again spoke.

"There's an experimental project at the Pokémon Lab in Cinnabar Island that promises to bring prehistorical pokémon back to life, I think you two should go there to check it out." The scientist suggested

"Thanks." The duo said, as they made their way towards the exit.

* * *

Ash then escorted Solidad back to her home, before heading back to Brock's house, it was already late, and he planned to leave Pewter early tomorrow, so he would have to be rested.

As he neared the gym he saw a tall muscular figure.

"Flint? Is that you?" Ash asked

"Ash." The man said greeting Ash with a nod

"You're here to challenge Brock?"

"No." the man took a deep breath "I'm his…"

However he was interrupted when the door opened, revealing Brock himself.

"Hey Ash." The gym leader then turned to Flint. "You…" he growled angrily

"Brock, so…"

Flint was interrupted by a right hook from Brock landing at his face.

"Flint!" Ash said in concern

"You know him?" Brock asked glaring at Ash

"I met him before challenging the gym, he gave me two TMs. Why did you punch him?"

"Because he's my father, or at least this was what he was supposed to be."

"I'm sorry." Was the only thing Flint said as he got to his knees.

"For leaving you and your mother, for forcing you to lose your childhood taking care of your siblings, for failing you, for being a coward, I'm so sorry." Flint said as tears spilled from his eyes

"Why should I forgive you?" Brock yelled angrily

"Brock, hear him out." Ash said, putting a hand on his shoulder

"Fine, let's go to the gym."

* * *

The trio silently walked towards the gym building, getting to the battlefield.

"Why are you back now?" Brock demanded

"I've realized my mistakes and how rough things had been for you." Flint explained

"Well, newsflash: you're five years late." The gym leader yelled

"Son, I can't make up for the lost time, a man can only admit when he was wrong and ask forgiveness."

"I can't forgive you, even if I wanted to."

"Then let me stay here." Flint said surprising Brock and Ash

"Why I'd do that?"

"So you can be a Pokémon breeder as you wished to."

"How do you know that?"

"I'm your father."

"But what guarantees that you won't leave again?"

"A man's promise."

Brock seemed conflicted, he then turned to Ash.

"What do you think?"

"Not having a father is rough shit, people pick you on, say your mom's a whore… it happened to me. I can't tell if Flint is lying or not, but it looks like he regrets his decisions. Brock, remember the talk we had yesterday, like me, there may be a light in the end of the tunnel." Ash advised

"Flint…father, we have a lot to talk about." Brock said turning to his parent

"I know, son."

* * *

Ash decided it was better to leave the Harrison house to give Brock and Flint time to talk with each other, so he went looking for a place to camp. His phone then ringed, with a text from Solidad

 _SOLIDAD: BROCK CALLED ME SAYING THAT YOU HAVE NO PLACE TO SLEEP, BUNK IN AT MY HOUSE. I WON'T ACCEPT NO AS AN ANSWER._

Ash sighed, it seemed like Brock wanted to pay him back for setting him up with Officer Jenny

 _ASH: I'M GOING_

* * *

He reached Solidad's apartment in some minutes. The apartment was situated at downtown Pewter and was a two room, as Solidad mentioned earlier his parents were travelling. Ash then gulped as he remembered Brock's quote from yesterday.

" _I'm telling you right now, she wants The Pipe."_

Ash dismissed this thoughts from his head, only for them come right back full force when Solidad opened the door. She was wearing very casual and comfy clothes. White oversized t-shirt and white shorts, very small white shorts.

"Ash." She beamed giving a peck on his lips

"S-Solidad." Was all Ash could say as he tried to contain his blush.

"Come, I'll show you the house." She said, turning her back at him, involuntarily swaying her hips.

Ash blinked a couple of times, his mouth agape.

" _This will be a very long night."_

* * *

Once again I've surpassed my record with this chapter, 14k words. I'm very happy with the acceptance of the story by you my fellow, readers. Now, I'll do something different, I'll do a quick Q&A before talking about the chapter itself.

* * *

Q: Will we see lemon scenes with ash making love with his girls and have ash winning leagues?

A: Can't tell about lemons, I've been flirting with the idea of writing one, but I'll only post it if it's of good quality. About the leagues however… Ash will win one, maybe two of his first three leagues.

Q: Pikachu evolucionará? (Pikachu will evolve?)

A: Ash's shiny Pikachu won't evolve as it still retains certain characteristics of the canon Pikachu, Ash however will develop a good tactic to employ Pikachu in battle, making his strength match Raichu's. But I'm planning to give Ash a Raichu in some point.

Q: Love the story, I kinda don't want him making out with every female characters he passes because then the romance would be meaningless when it gets to May Serena and Dawn.

A: I see your point, and while his date with Solidad in this chapter may further develop the idea that this story will have Ash making out with every girl, I assure this is planned and is meant to an end. I want Ash to be more experienced in life when he meets May at the start of the Hoenn Arc. But like I said before, what happened in the last two chapters won't be a constant thing in this story, although it will still happen in some few chapters.

Q: Ash's relationship with Melanie, Giselle and the Sensational Sisters

A: Both parts knew this would be a casual thing, Ash's thoughts in this chapter, before the date with Solidad elaborate on this further, so I don't think there's the need to repeat it.

Q: What's next, the Black Tulip (Domino) falls shameless in love with Ash and gives him any and all information on Team Rocket?

A: This never went through my head, but no, I can't see that happening.

Q: Why don't you have ash get a female Alolan Raichu? They are psychic and electric and that way Pikachu could have a girlfriend.

A: It's hard to insert an Alolan Pokémon in Ash's team as Pikachu only evolves to Alolan Raichu when exposed to a Thunderstone in Alola, and I don't plan on having him going there. (I'm a bit of old-school, so I refuse to write about Z-Moves). Taking advantage of the question about Alola, I'm flirting with the idea of bringing Lillie to Kanto, to perhaps act as Ash's love interest, so while it's not definite, I'm keeping this option open.

Q: About Misty's personality at her brief appearance in Chapter 3.

A: I won't make Misty personality much different than the canon, but her outburst at Ash was planned as I wanted their relationship to start off the wrong foot.

Q: Do you plan on Ash traveling to the Orange Islands? I ask because, thus far most girls that Ash has met find him attractive. Since you said that he would sleep with some of the girls, I was hoping if you could involve Professor Ivy and Lorelei. Since I don't see a lot of stories involving the two of them, would like to see them fall for Ash as well. Just a suggestion.

A: I don't think I'll write about the Orange Islands for two reasons. Reason number one is that I'm bee lining this story towards the end of the Johto Arc, where in my head things will start to get interesting. Reason number two is that I think the whole Orange Islands Arc was made to get rid of Brock, I'll quote Bulbapedia in here:

 _There had been some debate between members of the fanbase in regards to why Brock was removed from the main cast during the Orange Islands arc, why Tracey Sketchit was created, and why Brock returned later. In an interview with former Pokémon anime director and storyboard artist Masamitsu Hidaka, he stated his own reason why Brock was removed from the cast and why he eventually returned. He revealed that the true reason they replaced Brock is because, once they realized Pokémon was going global, there was a chance that Americans, if not anyone else outside of Japan, would view Brock as a racist stereotype because of his eyes (even though there wasn't an actual complaint yet). So they created a "tall, Anglo-Saxon looking person to be on the safe side". They later replaced Tracey with Brock again once they realized that no one really cared as to what Brock looks like, and actually enjoyed his character. However, this was only stated by Hidaka and not by any other staff member._

Of course that also was important as Ash won the Orange League. I personally like this act, heck when I was a kid I woke up my mom because I was cheering so loud for Pikachu against Drake's Dragonite. But as a writer in this story I think it would be pointless as I don't want to get rid of Brock and Ash will get his recognition by his success at the Indigo League (Seriously, losing because of his Charizard refusing to battle Pikachu was dumb). Now for the girls, I can introduce Lorelei in some point as Misty is said to be a big fan of her, but I can't see any possible means to have Ash making a move on her. Prof. Ivy will appear during a important part of the Johto Arc.

Q: Lt. Surge calling trainers who used Alolan Raichu as 'fags' in Chapter 2.

A: This is a M rated story, there will be profanity, also I wanted to inspire Lt. Surge's personality in those conservationist army generals, so he's a bit of a homophobic. But I won't dive further into that facet of his personality.

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Pokémon suggestions:

Salamence: I also noticed that none of the good guys ever used a Salamence. I like the whole species concept of Bagon slamming his head in frustration of not being able to fly. I think it's a good match with Ash, but I can't guarantee him at his Hoenn team as there are some other pokémon I'd like to add.

Zoroark : Ash will travel to Unova briefly, but I'm not sure of having him catching a Zoroark. I know there's a movie where Zoroark plays a big part, but I haven't watched it yet, so I can't really express my thoughts on this particular pokémon as I don't have any thoughts.

Gardevoir: I'm not a fan of this pokémon, and I really don't think it pairs well with Ash, but I'm strongly leaning towards giving Ash a Gallade.

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Girls suggestions: Like I said before, I don't consider this story to be a Harem fic, although some readers may discord. Therefore there's very little space to add girls without making the story unrealistic, even more now that I decided that Dawn will be present in fact. But I still will give my thoughts on some suggestions posed at the reviews.

Korrina : It's hard to talk about Kalos as I don't even know if Ash's really going there, nothing against her, but I think the way the story developed makes this impossible

Anabel : I won't lie, I don't like this pairing, so no, sorry.

Misty : Will be a peculiar case, she'll appear next chapter once again, so stay tuned in to see how things play out.

Hilda : It's the same as Korrina, since Ash won't journey through Unova, only making a visit, it'll be hard to make a viable way for them to meet.

Miette: She's Serena's rival, and I liked the jealousy scenes that she caused at her. Since I'll be bringing Serena to Sinnoh, Miette can appear too, but the possibility of having her paired with Ash is very small.

Zinnia: I'm planning on integrating some of the Omega Ruby, Alpha Sapphire concepts at the Hoenn Arc, but I'm not sure of the Delta Episode.

Cynthia: I like Cynthia, a lot, but I can't see her having a steady relationship with Ash. There will be flirting but I really can't imagine Ash landing her at the end.

Skyla, Elesa : Like I said above, Ash will briefly visit Unova, and I have something planned for those two.

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Now that this is complete I'd like to further talk about this chapter.

First noteworthy thing was the Jigglypuff doodle at Ash's face, in case someone didn't got the message, Jigglypuff has drawn a Hitler moustache at Ash. I'd like to formally state that this was in no way a mean to back Nazism, only being used as a way of comical relief. Should a reader felt offended by this I deeply apologize for it.

This chapter also had a darker side of Ash as he talked about his mother. This will probably be one of the most angst things you'll ever see in one of my stories, but I felt like it was needed.

Third I'd like to talk about Ash's basketball scene, while I get that this is high OOC, I decided to make a viable backstory for it. Some sports will be cited sometimes at my chapters, but this is still a Pokémon story.

Finally, I'd like to inform the fiction cover was updated to show Ash's Pikachu in his newly evolved form. The charm at his ear is the same as in Ash's necklace, readers who play the game will know it.

Next Chapter is called Date at the Cape and will feature Ash's third gym battle and Misty's return.

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Will Ash score a home run?

Will Brock forgive Flint?

Make your bets and leave a review.

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 **IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE 04/06/2019: This story is being rewritten, to get rid of the grammatical errors, fix some plot holes and change somethings as reader's recommendations, the first chapters of the new story are already published, this won't be updated any further, so it will continue at "Zero to Hero - Reloaded" whose link is in my profile.**


	6. Chapter 6

Hi, I'm back, I'm usually opposed to posting author notes without any content, but I'll be making an exception in this case since technically there's a chapter. If you haven't noticed by now this story underwent a rewrite.

However I decided to post in a new story as opposed to updating the chapters here. Well from this point onward, the rewritten version has surpassed the original. Chapter Six is up, but in the Zero to Hero – Reloaded story, which you'll find the link in my profile.

I just made sure to post this here in order to get original readers that probably missed the new version.


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